The One Night Stand
by Zosie
Summary: You know how it goes.  Green eyes meet brown across a crowded bar.  You want a night of fun to escape the grief.  He was just relaxing with his pals, having a  drink then he saw you there.You have that big empty bed in that big empty house Why not? AH M
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

The One Night Stand

Bella's POV

Grief has a lot to answer for, but I suppose seriously, I can't keep using it to excuse my behaviour forever. Maybe lust needs to accept responsibility this time. I don't usually sleep around or with random unnamed strangers but fuck me, and he did, what can I say? How often do you walk into a crappy little poor excuse for a 'night club' in Forks, Washington and catch the seriously amazing green eyes of a man who looks like a Greek God? I mean, when I lived here before, we used to measure up every boy against the Mike Newton Test, and that was pretty sad.

It was just that he was the best we had.

Not that I had him, don't think that. I considered it but sometimes settling for mediocre is worse than going to Prom alone, you know what I mean? I had a good time, I got asked to dance with several boys, it was fine.

Fine used to be the standard here but this gorgeous creature has raised the bar.

I can't openingly ogle so I sit at the bar and watch him in the mirror in front of me and count how many times he glances my way as opposed to how many times he looks around the rest of the room.

Oh, another point for me, and I just realized after thirty minutes of sneakily perving, he has two not so bad friends with him. A tall but slim blond who has to be from Texas, going on the handmade cowboy boots on his feet. And a muscle laden but really happy almost pretty boy with really blue eyes and black curly hair. They seem to be having a good time and I subtly cross my legs and glance , scanning the whole room, accidentally pulling the hem of my dress a little higher.

Bingo.

Green Eyes can't look away and I want to laugh because I know he wants what I want tonight and there's no way I'm playing hard to get. Easy to get, sure.

If I was any kind of decent friend I would be on my cell phone and giving Alice and Rosalie the heads up because the blond is playing air guitar and Alice totally lowers her panties for musicians, and Rose likes 'em big. Everywhere. She would do the 'caress the bulge' test before she agrees to anything but I know she would take that big boy home and rock his world.

"Can I buy you a drink?" this voice that makes me damp and sounds like velvet would sound if it could speak, murmurs and I feel my nipples harden.

Fuck, if Charlie could see me now...

Nope, forget Charlie, forget the funeral, just let it all go and have some fun, Bella. I swear there are cats planning their future litters with me in mind.

"_There she is, the future spinster who will love our little kittens and give them the best home. And no nasty husband to kick them outside in the cold at night."_

Well, tonight those damned cats can stay out of the alley because it's Bella's turn to purr and howl and scratch this man's back to ribbons.

"I would like that," I seriously understate.

"What are you drinking?" he asks and I resist saying "Why you of course, undo that fly and let me kneel at your feet."

Just.

"Um, SoCo and Coke," I finally remember. "With ice."

"I guess you need the ice to cool down your hotness," he says and I frown.

"Seriously? That's your best line?"

He blushes, which surprises the heck out of me, and mumbles, waving a hand back at the two guys watching us and they are laughing out loud.

"It was Emmett's line, he knows I suck at this stuff. Forgive me, I'll leave you alone."

"Don't you dare," some inner slapper takes over my tongue. "That would be unforgivable."

"Oh, okay, right," he stutters and I push out the bar stool next to mine and he sits down.

Fuck if the man isn't nervous.

I mean, he has to be in his late twenties, he must do this on a nightly basis and I do not amuse myself by imagining I am anything special. I'm not ugly, I have nice regular features but no man of this awesomeness has ever looked my way or offered to buy me anything before.

But then, I have never seen anyone this hot and...pretty.

The almost curly auburnish coppery hair, the sharp chin and a little stubble, the pale skin that I usually detest because _everyone _here has it by default, the nice firm arms and chest, and sliding down lower...

"Cheers," he says and I notice he has indeed bought me a drink.

I raise my glass to him and smile. So glad I spent all that money on my teeth now, since the years of braces and whitening treatments I can smile with absolute confidence.

"Cheers," I say in what I hope is a sultry voice. God knows Rose has spent hours making me repeat the word a million times, and that damned Alice laughed the whole time.

Bitch.

She can blame herself for me not sharing and giving her a tasty treat tonight as well. Because I will be munching on this eye candy.

"So, you live around here?" he asks.

"I used to. I went to Forks High, and I know you didn't. I think I would have noticed you."

Fuck, it hits me that maybe he is one of those fucking teenage boys who grew a foot in height overnight and got the facial hair young and maybe he was years behind me, and he did indeed attend Forks High. I never spared a glance at any guy younger than me. Even those the same age always seemed so immature.

My rule had been, two years or more ahead of us or forget it.

"No, we are relatively new in town."

"From..?"

"Um, Boston. That's my brother Emmett and my best friend, Jasper. Do you want to come and meet them?"

Uh oh, we aren't thinking foursome here, right, because there's not a lot of Bella to go around and I haven't even ever done a threesome.

"You don't have to, they are pretty much idiots, it's no loss to you, unless you fancy one of them? I noticed you looking our way in the mirror and they think you were looking at me but if it was..."

"It was you. Definitely you. Not that my friends wouldn't be all over your companions but the big one's a little too big and the blond looks kind of intense."

"Jasper? Yeah, he's just out of a long term thing, still a bit gun shy. Maria...you don't want to hear about him, do you?"

"Nope, though a brief history of you would be nice to listen to."

He paled and almost stood up and I had a feeling he wanted to flee. How strange. I know I don't catch a lot of attention but men don't usually run away from me.

"Hey, it's cool. You don't have to tell me anything. Do you want to go somewhere quieter?"

There is nowhere in Forks quieter than the house I just inherited.

"Are you going to be staying in town long?' he asks, once again showing a bad case of nerves.

"No, I have a life somewhere else. I'm only here to tie up a few loose ends."

"Good. Okay, where shall we go?" he asks and I get the feeling had I said I may change my mind and stay local , he would have scuttled back to his table.

"I have this house, it has a bedroom," I reply and he swallows loudly. He is definitely on the pull but it's as if he has never done this before and that's just not possible.

Maybe he's the one out of the long term thing with this Maria.

I stand and he stands, and he wipes his hands down the legs of his jeans and he glances back at his friends and they do the thumbs up and he turns back quickly and helps me on with my coat.

"Um, we came in Emmett's car..."

"I have mine here, want to drive?" I offer and he shrugs so I hand over my keys after hitting the unlock button. The tail lights of my borrowed yellow Porsche light up and his face is a picture.

"Fuck me," he breathes and I nod, I have every intention of doing just that.

He opens the passenger door for me and tucks the bottom of my coat inside, and shuts the door, then pauses as he stands at the driver's door.

I'm shocked to overhear his mantra.

"You can do this, man up."

I know he isn't talking about driving the yellow vehicle, it's what he has to? needs to? do next that he is having qualms about.

Hardly flattering but I have a feeling it's not about me, it's all about him.

He steels himself and a different man almost, sits behind the wheel and I tell him directions to the Swan house.

He parks expertly in the driveway so I know he has handled fast cars before, and he is there, opening my door like some long out of date gentleman.

I alight and walk up, and put out a hand for my keys. He frowns and takes my hand, turning it over in his larger one, and lifts my fingers to his lips and kisses them.

I have to chuckle.

"I meant, give me my keys, please, but that was...nice."

He blushes and I want to laugh again because it's usually me, Blushing Bella, with the ever red cheeks.

I am surprising myself with my boldness but if there's one thing this last week has taught me, it's none of us know how long we have left here on this earth.

Charlie, my dad, health food freak, gym junkie, never smoked, rarely even managed to swallow down a beer when the occasion demanded, dead at 49.

I mean, he didn't even get to round it up to 50, and that seems kind of mean and unfair. Especially when you think of my 'stepfather', Phil. He used to be fit once upon a time, but since his brief career in minor league baseball disappeared, he's run to fat and never lifts his large and flabby ass off the couch. Takeaway food, a can of lager forever in one hand and cigars in the other, you would think even the fact he is four years Charlie's junior that he would have gone first, if one of them had to die before their time.

I unlock the door and lock all such thoughts away.

"Do you want to exchange names, talk a little first?" the beautiful man at my side asks.

"No need, I won't be here much longer and it will be as if I never existed," I promise him and he relaxes at last. So, he does want what I want. A little recreational activity with no strings attached. I can handle that. In a way, it kind of frees me and stops me acting innocent and coy. I can be the sexy bitch I usually keep locked inside and nobody will ever know.

Apart from that pair at the table. No doubt they will demand details and slap this man on the back and buy him a round.

I just hope they are not sitting there waiting for him to return because I'm keeping him all night, even if he thinks he is sneaking off when I go to the bathroom.

I grab four bottles of water from the fridge on the way past, it's going to be thirsty work.

The guestroom would be best, it has it's own bathroom so I can even lock the bedroom door, if necessary.

I offer him my hand and lead the way and I'm glad I haven't decided what to do yet, sell the house, keep it and get tenants, thus it's still fully furnished and I actually put fresh linen on this bed in the faint hope someone would be coming back with me.

I sit on the bed and beckon him over, closer and undo his belt and he sighs in a 'this is really it' way and undresses himself as I strip off unashamedly, and open the bed covers.

Black sheets, I'm so trendy and goth, I think laughingly because to find a bigger nerd than myself would take some doing.

Rose did my make up, Alice bought the dress that I drop to the floor and even as I stand there naked and wait for him to judge if I'm good enough to fuck, I can hear her voice.

"Hang the damned dress up, it takes like two seconds and that fabric creases like a bitch."

I really almost considered doing just that but suddenly he has found his resolve and his lips are on mine, tender and gentle, but the hunger is here, just underneath and I can't help my response. It's a little more animalistic than his but it has been a while and I'm sure he has fucked many times since the last time I had a man in my bed.

"Um I have to ask, are you on the Pill?"

"Yes indeedy and I'm certified clean, do you want to see?"

"I trust you. I am too," he replies, and there it is, a hint of sadness. Some bitch tossed this lovely man away and broke his heart. Well, if he's using me to make himself feel better, that's fine with me. It's not like I'm not using him for far worse a crime.

His fingers are so long and they seek out my mound and he rubs it for a minute then there they go, sliding and seeking out inside my folds and it's on. I'm glad it's dark and I'm glad he doesn't comment on how freaking wet I am. His kiss deepens and he is getting harder and I feel his erection against my belly as he hovers above me. Right on to the main course then, no appetisers it seems.

That's fine with me, we have all night, I'm sure we will experiment and explore and try other things later.

He pauses for a millisecond then there it is, and I feel it's proportions as he slips inside me. It's nice, large but not enormous, wide but not uncomfortably so, and eager, just as my body is.

For a second we both stare into one another's eyes as some weird static seems to shock through our bodies but there's nothing stopping what I want from happening and I arch and meet him, forcing him in deep, in all the way.

Fuck me.

He does, and it's really the best experience of my life so far. He makes the others seem like schoolboys and I never fucked a schoolboy. I was probably the last of the entire class to lose it, and it was some time after graduating Forks High that it finally happened. College, thank God for college. Thank God everyone there had the same ideas. It was our one and only time to fuck around freely and not have to sneak out of someone's bedroom and do the walk of shame.

I can't even remember my first time because it has paled into insignificance compared to this and I love that I can let myself go and respond in kind.

My body opens and stretches and welcomes him in, and I take his every inch back each time, hissing as he hits me right where I need contact the most. This man knows how to fuck.

I idly wonder how many lucky ladies have been here, been the recipient's of this amazing experience and somehow I envy them even though I'm the chosen one tonight.

I seriously hold back because I don't want to let go and come yet in case he's one of those guys who takes that as the signal he can let go himself and it's all over, but this is fucking difficult because that damned buzz is interfering and I give up and feel myself pulse and my walls shudder around him.

"Oh thank God," he whispers to himself so it seems he is battling to refrain as well and sure enough, I feel it as he fills me. However my fears are unfounded, and even as he collapses to lay lightly along my body, he is still supporting not only himself but an all new even harder boner, and he kisses me quickly as he withdraws and rolls me over, and there it is, back inside, from behind and he is seriously working out as he thrusts into my body again.

His mouth is on my neck, biting, kissing, sucking, and then he kisses my back in quick little pecks of kisses and the moans coming from him are even louder than my own. Bless you God, thank you for sending me this Heavenly creature because I start to wonder if he is even real. I mean, if there was a way to combine every sexual experience I have ever had and make them all rolled into one, it would still suck compared to this.

My body has never bucked and craved and sought to pound back like this, he must think I'm a part time porn star but it's just the response he brings out in me and forces me to do.

Then he's out and he turns me to face him again and his lips are consuming mine and he rocks inside again.

"You are so beautiful, I want to look at your face," he explains bashfully, like I might find those words offensive.

"You look at whatever turns you on, Green Eyes, just keep fucking me like that."

What a night and I do mean an eight hour, all to short night.

We did sleep now and then, we did shower occasionally though I can't swear we got out any cleaner than we got in, seeing he liked taking me up against the tiled wall. So glad I scrubbed this room clean this morning.

I was right, we did use mouths and hands when we were too exhausted to do the whole deal with our bodies, but still needed to just come again, and again. It would appear there is no set rule for how many orgasms a thirty year old woman can have in one night, if you are wondering.

Many.

Plenty.

More than every single one she ever got from all other sexual activities before, alone or accompanied.

Dawn came as it had to, and I looked across at his sleeping face and noticed how calm he was now, all signs of strain gone, and his lips were set in a slightly crooked smile. I felt happy myself and maybe a little like I had done a tiny bit of good to this man, and prayed he would never know the crime I committed against him. There was no reason he would find out, I had no intention of ever returning to Forks. My dad was gone, and visiting a pile of dirt in a churchyard would not make me feel close to him.

Then the sunbeams reached my window and shone inside and I noticed a sudden glint as it hit his hands and I gasped.

Thin, gold, third finger left hand.

Fuck, he's married.

I have never touched a man before who belonged to someone else and at first I just want to vomit. Then I calm down and think it through.

He has a wife, maybe kids. He won't suffer at all, it's not like if there is the beginnings of a baby inside me that he would ever want it, or need to play daddy. He probably does that already, or he will one day when he and she have children together.

I wriggle out of his embrace and head for the shower, alone, and put all thoughts aside. It probably didn't work, I mean, I _was_ on the Pill up until two months ago, it could still be lurking in my system making me barren. And anyway, I will be far away in the sunny climes of Florida before I even know one way or another, and he will be here and wifey will be back from wherever she was last night, and stop panicking, Bella.

You have worked hard, you deserve a child, everyone else gets them; some women give them away or abort them. I did not commit a murder here.

The door suddenly flies back with such force it cracks the dry wall.

"What the fuck! What is this?"

Ooops, he has my temperature chart and I kind of think any guy his age, especially with a wife, would recognise what that is for.

"You ovulated yesterday? You planned this. What, you want to have a baby? MY baby? Without even asking."

"Sorry, that would have been the polite thing to do, I agree."

"No," he says loudly. "Not happening. I'm a doctor, I will go get you the Morning After Pill and you will take it in front of me and you will cancel any plans you may have to leave Forks today, because there is a second pill you need to take tomorrow. And once again, I will be watching you swallow it."

"Excuse me? This is your business because?"

"Because...because...that would be my child."

"Stop panicking, your wife will never know. Look, pretty boy, I'm thirty. It was my birthday yesterday. The old biological clock was ticking and I'm well off, I earn a decent living, I can easily afford to raise a kid. I promise your name will not appear on a birth certificate, that's why I never wanted to know your name. This way, if there is a baby, I can honestly say Father Unknown, and my kid can't come to me when he's eighteen and demand details. What I don't know, I can't tell him."

"No, this is not happening," he said, sitting on this bed, putting his head in his hands. I dried myself and pulled on a pair of non sexy undies and my blue jeans and rummaged around in my suitcase looking for a Tshirt and a maybe a bra.

He looks up at me as I dress and his face changes from anger to pleading.

"Please don't do this. Please let me make sure you are safe."

"Relax pretty boy, I knew what I was doing."

"You think because you find me pretty you could steal my sperm."

"Uh, you seemed to be giving it away pretty freely."

"Please take the pills. You don't understand. I've killed people."

Okay, I was expecting '_my wife will find out and rip off my balls'_ so this is different.

"You can't have my baby. Nobody can. Fuck, I should have had that fucking vasectomy already. I should have waited. I let those two talk me into doing this and now..Please. Wait here. I'll be right back. Please."

He dressed even faster than he had undressed and I hurriedly threw everything into my suitcase, belatedly hung up Alice's creased frock and grabbed my toiletries from the bathroom. I could probably, I don't know, have the Will papers or whatever faxed to me and sign them that way. I was out of here.

"Yoohoo, we saw him leave. Boy are you in big trouble, Miss Bella."

I turned and looked at Rose and Alice and shrugged. They heard that?

"What were you doing ?" Alice asked, seriously.

"Everything, I bet. A little bit of tonguing, a little bit of how's your father, oops, sorry. Not a good choice of words," Rose apologized.

"Yes, we fucked. All night long. And it was amazing. And I have to get out of here now. Come visit me, love you both, sorry about the dress, Alice..."

"Fuck the dress. You spent the night fucking my brother?"

"What?" Rose and I both screamed.

"That was my brother. You both knew I had a brother, he went with our father when the parents divorced. Dad took him and Emmett."

I cringed. I knew I'd heard that name before. So I had spent the night with...

"Edward. You fucked Edward," she said accusingly. "Edward doesn't fuck around. He's too broken and now you have probably broken him even further."

"Alice, what can I say? I'm sorry, I didn't know, please don't tell your Mom or his wife. I had no idea. I never met him before remember, I didn't ask him his name. Now, I have to seriously go, please drive me to the bus station."

"You are not going anywhere," the man I now knew to be Edward stated, shutting my front door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Whoa, so many readers on alert after ONE chapter? That's not pressure. Note to self, only write when sober, pretend it's just your usual small group, don't panic! They'll all go away when they realize its about a relationship, not just sex. You'll be back to your usual few faithfuls.**

The One Night Stand

Chapter 2

BPOV

Edward stood in front of us, narrowing his eyes, looking from his sister to Rose, to me, and he all but growled.

"It's quite the little coven. Did you two know about this?"

Rose shrugged. "Is Emmett around today? Where is he? What's he doing?"

"Back off, he's not interested. Leave him alone. He's told me about you. Alice, did you know what she was doing?"

" Edward, there's nothing wrong with what she did. Lots of women want to be as casual about hooking up as men have always been. I knew how she felt after the funeral. I knew Bella wanted to just go out to a place where nobody knew her and just let go for one night and have some fun, but I had no idea you and the boys would be there. You never go out, Emmett's usually at football practice, and Jasper doesn't drink or date, so how come you three were even there?"

"It rained, he doesn't play in the rain. Jas and I had gone along to watch and so we were at a loose end. There's a choice of the pub or that one bar, so we decided to give it a try."

"But I don't understand, you don't go around hooking up with women, what was that all about?"

"Emmett and Jas thought it was time I got back on the horse. Emmett was convinced my uh, dick would drop off from lack of use, and Jasper called me the Revirgin. I didn't expect this to happen. I'm not a mind reader. I assumed she just wanted what I wanted. We didn't even exchange names."

"So you have rejoined the real world again and slept with someone new. I'm not sure what the problem is here. It's not the end of the world, what are you so panicked over?'

"You don't know what she did? Honestly? You weren't part of her plan?"

"Edward, her plan? Her plan to not ask whoever she picked up his name? I think maybe this has happened before, to other people. Not everyone wants to introduce themselves to someone they just want to fuck for one night."

"Let me introduce myself, I'm the horse," I sniped. Alice looked confused. "I'm the horse he got back onto. I'm the horse he used to get his groove back."

"But that still isn't a crime. So, you didn't know her name."

"I didn't know her agenda, either," he growled.

"Agenda? Okay, let me at least introduce you seeing it seems to be that important. Edward, this is Bella Swan. Bella, Edward," Alice hurriedly said, madly trying to work out what had happened.

"Stop it. Can you and the stalker go so I can talk to Bella alone, please," Edward asked in a tone that indicated it was not a question but an order.

Alice turned to face me. "I'm so sorry, Bella. Rose and I should have come with you despite you insisting you could only go through with it if you were alone. We could have pointed out the men to leave alone. I had no idea my brother would be there. Will I take my car, leave my car? Come back to take you to catch the midnight bus?"

"She won't be going anywhere until tomorrow night at the earliest. Hey, that's your yellow Porsche? You truly are a spoilt little brat."

"Yeah well, I had to stick out my entire course to get it and you know how I hated college. And Bio Dad said if I get a career out of fashion design within two years of graduating, he would buy me whatever I wanted and I wanted that car. Like he didn't spoil you and Emmett rotten too. You two got to go to private school in Boston, I was the only one considered not clever enough to waste that sort of money on. Well, now he acknowledges that was wrong and mean of him, not that I wanted to go away myself. I enjoyed Fork's High. How's Jasper?"

"God, do any of you have the slightest amount of decency? The Barbie doll follows Emm around like some fucking shadow, you lust after a guy who seriously got his heart destroyed, do you really think Jas would trust any woman again? No. And your friend here steals my sperm. My Achilles heel, getting women pregnant. The one thing I swore to never do again. Lovely coven, I must say."

"Steal your sperm? How does somebody steal sperm? Did she drug you?" Alice asked, looking at me with new eyes. The shock on her face almost made me laugh out loud.

"Did you kidnap my brother? Tie him up? God, Bella you didn't _rape _him did you? All by yourself?"

Edward was getting very red in the face as he tried to judge whether his sister was being sarcastic but she looked so concerned and confused, he just rolled his eyes and changed the subject away from the embarrassing picture she had painted. Because all five foot four of me could have subdued six foot two of him. And how would I have gotten him in and out of her car unconscious? The whole idea was too ludicrous.

"How come I've never seen you driving the Porsche? You drive your old car to Mom and Replacement Dad's for dinner, ever since I got back here."

Alice grabbed on to the new direction the conversation was going gratefully, despite her brother's harsh tone.

"BioDad said better not flaunt the fact he rewarded the fashion designer with a better car than the doctors. You and Emmett didn't need bribing, you always knew what you wanted to do and had the brains to pass with honors. I needed a little encouragement. I leave it garaged when you are around."

Distraction complete, Edward glared at me again, but keep speaking to her.

"Spoilt brat. Now go."

The girls went and I sat down and waited for his wrath.

"Okay, Bella, I don't even know you and I don't want to disclose a lot to you if I can avoid it, but I am telling you, you don't want this. Take the pills, then next month go seduce some other sperm donor and have a dozen kids for all I care but there's no way I can agree to this. Please be sensible."

"First, I want to know about the whole killing part. Can you at least explain?"I asked.

"I'd really prefer not to get into that. Put it this way, two women are dead because of my actions."

"So, okay. Was it like, you took a gun and shot them type thing, which I assume not seeing you are not on Death Row."

He scowled and shook his head impatiently.

"Was it more you let them drive in the bad weather and their car skidded on a patch of ice hidden by the freshly fallen crisp white snow, and their car swerved to avoid a baby deer and crashed? And you were meant to drive them but you had gotten drunk so they had to drive themselves. And now you wander the planet alone, swearing to never inflict your children on any woman in case those children inherit your alcoholic gene and are drinkers? So you swore on those women's graves not to reproduce?"

"What do you do for a living?" he asked randomly.

"I write novels. Why?"

"Because only a hack writer would come up with something like that in those words. I'm going to guess I don't read your type of 'novels'. I'm thinking you aim at bored housewives and sell a shitload."

"Thanks, I think. I do sell a lot of them and yes, I do aim for for the female reader group, they have more appreciation for drama with imagination. But you can't just distract me like you did your sister. Tell me a little detail so I know what I'm dealing with here. I really can't picture you as any type of killer."

"Fine, you asked. I got my first girlfriend pregnant in High School. We were both fifteen. She had an abortion and died afterwards, it hadn't been done properly. I didn't know she was getting it done, because I walked away and told her I didn't want the baby and it was her problem. She did what she thought best and paid with her life. Nobody here knows I was the one who knocked her up, only Emmett and Jasper. Even my Mom knows nothing about this," he warned me but his voice was sad, not angry now. "I don't ever want Mom and Alice to know."

"I'll never tell anyone," I promised. He searched my face and looked deeply into my eyes to see what was there. Truth? Could he trust me with his secret? I really would keep his confidence.

He seemed to accept I was trustworthy with this, at least and to my surprise there was more.

"I never touched another girl until I met Charlotte in college. We got married and she gave in to my pleas to have a baby. I guess I felt guilty, and thought I needed to bring a child into the world to make up for the one who never had that chance."

So, I was right, he had a wife and a child. His eyes turned darker and he tore at his hair.

"She collapsed and died one night while I was out with the boys having a few drinks that stretched out into a lot of drinks. I didn't get home until 4am. By then a neighbor had seen the front door was open, because Char had collapsed then crawled there seeking help but he didn't get home until midnight himself and it was far too late."

"Why did she die?"

"Ectopic pregnancy. The fertilized egg lodged in her Fallopian tube and as it grew larger it burst the tube. I was a medical student and I didn't even insist my own wife have an early scan to check it had implanted in her womb. My lack of care resulted in her death. Two for two, Bella. Fact. I impregnated two females and they are both dead. Technically that is four deaths. I don't wish to increase my tally."

I realized this situation I had put him in was a big deal to him but it was to late now. Sure, had I known I would have chosen differently and not added more fuckery to his already complicated life. We really should have talked before we went into that bedroom, though I doubt he would have told me all this in any other circumstance. Had I asked for his sperm he would have just left. What's done was done and I sighed a little, knowing he was probably never going to touch me again. In any way, and I was surprisingly sad. Not just about never having awesome sex again, but also never feeling another tender caress with his gentle hands.

He had touched me so softly he had made my entire body shiver in delight when we were regaining our breaths and trying to summon up more energy. It had not been all sex, there had been such caring touches. I knew it wasn't about me, but because he had only ever been with somebody he loved prior to this and he didn't know any other way to be with a woman.

He didn't know how to treat a girl like a piece of meat to use and discard her thoughtlessly. I've had men ask me to lock their door on my way out just minutes after they've ejaculated. I've had men get dressed and leave my bedroom while I dispose of the condom we just used. And those have always been men I had spent time with prior to allowing them to use my body. Men who did the required three dates. Men who made promises and then never called. Men who were already lining up their next conquest as they withdrew from me. Men who asked me for Rose's number as they put their socks back on.

Edward's whole body had reeked of respect and gratitude, like you were doing him the favor, and it was special to him, even though it could not have possibly been. We didn't know one another at all, and it was just his bad luck he had accepted my offer that came with callous disregard of him as a human being.

Maybe I needed to do the decent thing, whatever that was. Maybe I should take his pills and let the dream go, and go home and maybe try a sperm bank? No broken men involved. But the fact was, this was done and I didn't want to...I didn't want to maybe kill his child. Two had died already. This one may not even exist but what if it does? What if my genes and his beautiful genes are joined and mixed and a child from this gentle and rare man grows inside me already? I wasn't able to dismiss that as just a mistake.

"Fine, I get that. But I'm never going to see you again. You won't even know if I did conceive and if by the worst possible luck, it kills me, then it's my fault, not yours. You won't even know. I have no family to speak of, and it's not like my mother would think to put a Death Announcement in the Fork's newspaper. You can just forget this, forget me, and go on with your life. You will never know how this plays out."

"Wrong. You are Alice's friend. You really think she would not be devastated by your death? Babies are dangerous. You women assume because pregnancy is natural, that it's safe. So many things can go wrong. Blood clots, stroke, high blood pressure, a damned urinary infection could kill you if it went untreated during pregnancy. Listen to me. I know it's your body and your choice, I'm asking you to choose the right thing. Then go risk your life with someone else's monster inside you later. It's a one month delay. That's nothing."

"I will think about it but I need time. I'll tell you tomorrow."

"We don't have that luxury. You need to take this pill now. Nobody really knows exactly to the hour when a fertilzed egg implants, we have to prevent that from happening."

"A fertilized egg? I thought a Morning After Pill stopped the sperm going inside the egg."

"No, it prevents it from implanting."

"So if it's happened, it's already started. It's already a baby."

"It's not a baby, it's not even an embryo. It's a zygote, just a collection of cells with the potential to be an embryo given time, which won't happen if you take the pill now."

"You probably shouldn't have said all that. Now I'm seeing this as killing something, not preventing it."

"Does your religion dictate you can't take this pill?"

"Oh I'm not religious, not like into organized religion. I just believe in pro life. Anyway, as you say, chances are nothing happened. None of your swimmers met my egg, so it's really a pointless debate. Now, how about we agree to never ask a single question about one another to Alice, and you will never know. Even if I have a baby, I won't tell her whose it is, okay? For all you know your swimmers failed and I met someone else next month and bingo, maybe even a slightly premature birth , so don't mark any dates on your calendar. We agree now, it's not your kid. Whoever father's it, it's all mine."

"So you won't be reasonable?"

"If by being reasonable you mean, potentially kill a new little life, then no."

He sat and ran his fingers through his hair and it got me damp. I did that to him myself last night, he has freakishly soft hair like a baby. I licked my lips and gazed out the window. Look, a tree, a dog, a man pushing a stroller. Damn, I'm in control of my libido again but I really want a coppertop kid in my own stroller in nine months time. I'm never going to meet anyone else as pretty, as nice, as charming, as complicated as Edward and I want his baby.

I walked into that bar looking for a man with decent looks and good genes. I never expected to meet a man like Edward and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

"Then stay until the pregnancy test and let me scan you myself and make sure it's in the right place."

That seemed more than reasonable in the circumstances. I wanted to kiss him and thank him from the bottom of my heart. I would shower this child, if it existed, with so much love and I would tell him he had a father, and that father was a truly special and wonderful man. A man he could be proud to call his father. A man his mother would have loved, had she ever had that chance.

I shook myself. Let's not get carried away into the realms of fairy tale endings, I wasn't Cinderella. I was plain and practical Bella.

And on the practical side of things,I can write here, I never go anywhere without my laptop anyway. I can just keep editing the rewrite, it's not as if that's even hard work and it takes little thought, just care and patience. The story is written, it's all over bar the shouting.

"Okay. Deal. You back off and I'll stay until the test. Then if it's happened, you do the scan and I leave the next day. I should call my staff and tell them to take a couple of weeks off."

"You have staff?"

"Don't judge me, I work hard and my books make a lot of money. I don't buy things, I buy time and freedom by paying other people to do my boring stuff for me. Take in my dry cleaning, clean the apartment, which I lease, I don't own. I support children's charities, I donate half my income in fact."

"Good, rich people should help the poor."

"Hey, you are preaching to the converted. I'm not a terrible person. If I could just make an egg fertilize without help from a sperm, I would. I want a baby for myself, I don't want to share him with anyone else. He will be my little man and I shall raise him right, how I see fit, without some bossy man dictating anything."

"Rant over?" he asked and I simmered down.

"I just think it must be easier having one person making the decisions. No compromising. No arguments. No split families, just me and him forever. I'll be everything to him and he will be the same to me."

"Then he'll grow up and leave and you'll be all alone."

"So, I am now anyway. I've had relationships. They don't last. Motherhood lasts, I'll be his mother until the day I die."

"And going on Makenna and Char, that won't be too long."

I flinched.

Finally he left as he had to go to work but he placed the pill carefully on the coffee table where it could be easily seen and left a glass of water beside it.

I walked away and ignored them both.

I'm not taking it, there's no reason to think his baby would kill me. Nobody knows why one egg fertilizes and sticks in a tube when a million others drop into their host's uterus. I'm in no more danger than if it was anyone else's child. And I am never having an abortion so what happened to poor fifteen year old Makenna can't happen to me. My heart really bleeds for that poor girl. She must have been devastated when Edward deserted her. I know, he was a mere fifteen but he put that baby inside her. Maybe he should have kept his dick to himself or maybe used a condom. What is it about males and condoms? Do they really take away that much sensation?

He slept with me taking my word I was clean, I could have given him a lot worse if I had lied about that test instead of lying about being on The Pill. I guess I am just as guilty, I never asked for proof he was clean either. I wonder if the reason he was so shit scared was because he really hadn't fucked anyone since his wife died? Somehow that seemed possible, as unlikely as it was.

I feel sorry for her too, but at least she was an adult and knew the slim chance something could go wrong.

Of course he feels responsible, out boozing while his wife bleeds out or dies of shock, how does a ruptured tube kill you again? I never did that well in Human Reproduction.

To distract myself from worrying about whether I was in fact even pregnant, I decided to do some of the necessary things I had intended paying someone here to do for me.

Empty Charlie's closet.

Nobody would want the clothes he wore off duty, he tended to forget most people updated their wardrobes regularly and he just ignored the holes and it had been known for him to staple up a hem on a pair of trousers if it fell down. Dad was a man who needed a woman and Mom never cared about that when she left him all alone here to try and struggle to take care of himself for the first time in his life. He went from being his mother's only cherished child, to marrying my Mom out of High School, thanks to me and my imminent arrival.

Getting married just because you are pregnant is a big mistake and one I would never make. Huh, well that won't be happening now. I'm a little old for a teenage pregnancy and when I do conceive, it will be planned, very planned. I'm ready, I want a baby while I'm young enough to enjoy it.

Upstairs I feel a shock as I hold onto the sweater on Dad's bedroom chair because even after a week, it still smells like Charlie. Finally, finally, I cry and hug it to my cheek and remember knitting this for him. I love using my hands and he really appreciated the gift, far more than the things I had bought him with my earnings. He loved that I spent weeks choosing the pattern and the yarn and knitted it myself. I have another one, half made at home and now nobody will ever wear it. Charlie will never know I was knitting it.

I bought a variegated yarn that matched the colors in his eyes and so looked forward to seeing his face light up when I brought it to him. The man got more joy over this sweater in my hands than over the new boat and the depth sounder thing that supposedly told him where shoals of fish were. He loved it more than the car I gave him last Christmas to replace his old clapped out truck.

I miss him and I am not going to see him again, am I?

It's more than I can stand and Rose comes inside, having given up looking for Emmett it seems, and she stands beside me and puts her arms around me and says it will be okay.

"It won't though, Rose. Charlie was the only human being on earth who truly loved me. I have nobody now. Don't even mention Renee and Phil, they hardly acknowledge I exist. It was always Charlie and me, right up until after college. I never should have moved away. I just thought we had time, Rose. I assumed we had forty more years to spend visiting one another, and I didn't even come here for his last birthday.

He would have spent the day alone, and I was in New York on a book signing tour. How crap is that? His last birthday ever and I was writing my name on volumes of pointless, useless drivel for fans. I should have been here."

"Bella, I know there's a grief counselling group in the back rooms of the old part of the hospital. Lauren works there so I know it's on tonight. I think you should go. At least you won't have to be alone, and the people there all understand exactly how you feel. Come on, I think it starts in around twenty minutes time. I'll just call Lauren to check."

Edward's POV

I love and I hate this part of my job. It was my idea to start these meetings and although Emmett is the psychologist and leads the group, I always attend and offer my own experiences, neatly disguised of course, as examples of how much trauma one can go through and come out the other side. Not unscathed, mind you, very affected. I still feel the pain of the loss of Charlotte nearly five years ago now and I always will. She was lovely. Tall, willowy, blond, well covered, always on a diet, always worrying I wouldn't still find her attractive if she gained more weight. Like that mattered, it was her heart and soul I loved, how well it was wrapped was of little relevance.

I adored her and it was such a shock she even agreed to date me after I confessed to her how abysmally I had treated Makenna when I was a kid. Immaturity and fear had made me turn my back on her when she most needed someone, and that someone should have been me. I will never forget how badly I let her down.

However, I topped that, didn't I? The coroner found Char's death was completely accidental, just bad luck but everyone knew I should have been home with her. Had I been there when she felt the first typical nagging pain, maybe in her shoulder as that's the way it often shows up, I would have known immediately what caused it. She could have been rushed into surgery and lost nothing more than one tube and a baby who had no hope of living anyway.

No, not a baby, I corrected myself. It was a tiny group of cells. Only it never is simply that when it's yours and you want it. You never think, "Oh, we have this little cluster that may or may not one day grow into a baby", do you? You picture the very best end result, a living, breathing chubby faced infant.

In that moment, I can see Bella's side of things. She too thinks of what may be inside her, possibly, as a baby. A done deal. She probably thinks it's already formed and just tiny so far, not as it is in realty, nothing recognizable as human.

When a woman miscarries she grieves for what that group could have been one day , had she kept it safe inside. No matter she had no control and it died despite how much she longed to nourish it and protect it and give birth to it and hold it in her arms.

Suddenly I know I won't be dropping in to try one final time to convince Bella to take those pills, and I drop the second one into the waste paper basket. Maybe this is the price I need to pay for walking away from Makenna.

Maybe it was always meant to be.

Maybe Bella came here just to even up the balance and take a child of mine away from me.

I have to stop thinking about her and go try and help the people who are waiting and clinging to the hope someone here can lessen their grief just a little bit. I open the door and look around at the usual crowd and spy a new face, a tall well dressed man, whose wife died in the ER last month after she drove her car into a tree. It always makes me sad to see yet another new face and as they all sit down on the circle of chairs, I see another face.

The face I gazed at last night as my body enjoyed hers and gave her pleasure back. Bella is wearing a brightly patterned hand knitted sweater several sizes too large and the way she is hunched, holding the fabric to her cheek, I know it's Charlie Swan's sweater.

He had it on him when he was rushed in, too late.

"Hello everyone, I see we have two new members. Welcome Dale, please feel free to share as little or as much as you feel comfortable with. Welcome, Bella."

Emmett takes charge and some of our regulars purge themselves again by repeating their sad stories of loss and pain. I nod and smile in sympathy and encouragement but my eyes keep drifting back to her.

She looks so tiny, and sad, dwarfed by the clothing. I have a sudden urge to take her onto my lap like an infant and just rock her. Her eyes are wide and scared, maybe she thinks she is not welcome here so when the others have wandered off into smaller groups to talk, I go and sit on the chair beside her and reach for her hand.

"Bella, I understand now. Another loss, even a tiny loss of something that may not even exist anyway, would be too much. I don't want you to take those pills. Whatever is meant to happen, will. I accept if there's the slightest chance you are carrying a new life, you want to keep it and give it a chance."

When she finally spoke, she told me Rose was coming to get her but I told her to call her friend and say it would be okay, I would take her home myself.

This night was very different to the last. We slept in the same bed but tonight it was just silent still bodies wrapped together in comfort and the very beginnings of friendship.

In the morning, the other Bella awoke and looked surprised to find herself surrounded by my body as I spooned her to keep her safe.

"Edward? Oh God, I'm so sorry about last night. I just hadn't...I mean, at the funeral, there were all these people and I had to stay on track and thank them and organize everything. I never just sat down and acknowledged who I had lost. Who I was burying. The only man in this world who cares about me. I don't usually fall apart, I've never lost anyone before. I'm sorry I made you feel like you had to come home with me and stay all night. Thank you, though. It was kind of you. It was more than I deserved."

"Bella, there's nothing to be ashamed about. Grief is a challenge we can't always handle alone. I have lived with it for more years than I care to think about."

"Does it get better?" she asked in a small quiet voice.

"Better? I wouldn't use that word. It gets easier. It becomes part of you and like you would adapt if you lost a limb, you learn to live with it. You never forget, there's always that longing that she was still here, still waiting for you, still wanting to be with you, still loving you.

Sorry. I miss Charlotte every day but nights are worse. But I function. I work, I hold down a responsible job. I take care of myself. I attend family get togethers, I enjoy the company of my friends. I even...tried to let her go."

"Do you feel really sorry that now she isn't the last person you slept with?"

"Strangely no. I always thought I would, that's why I never tried doing that earlier. I thought it would be a betrayal, of us. Of her and me. But I think she understands. I'm alive, she isn't. I will never forget her, and I'll love her until the day I die, but she isn't here, Bella. I need to move on and you helped me with that. I am grateful, I wish all this other stuff hadn't happened, sure, but I also wish I had thanked you and kissed you in the morning.

I used you, you used me. That makes us even. I will let you go once I know you aren't pregnant or if you are, that it's a normal pregnancy. You can go back to your life, and maybe I can start living mine again. But it won't ever be as if you never existed. I will think of you and wonder. And probably worry. But we all make choices and you chose this path and if it helps you cope with your loss of Charlie, then who am I to deny you that?"

"Thank you, Edward. I know you still hope I'm not pregnant and I understand why, but you are the nicest man I have ever met and you will have to forgive me for hoping you did give me a baby, because now I don't think anyone else's baby would do. If that night didn't work, I'm going to accept it wasn't meant to be. Maybe adopt a child who really needs a home."

"You know, I think that's a better idea anyway. Better to give a child who has lost a parent a new one than create a baby deliberately, knowing he will never have a father."

"God, I've been so selfish. I never looked at it that way, I just knew what I wanted and tried to fulfill my own wants. I wasn't thinking that the child would miss out. I guess whatever happens, how ever this turns out, it will never be what I imagined. It's not really a happy ever after, is it?'

"I have complete confidence you will be an amazing mother, and it will be weird for me, knowing I have a child out there somewhere. A child who isn't part of my life. It's not something I would ever choose, but I respect that it's your dream to raise him alone and we don't really know one another, so I guess there is no other way. I do need you to consider letting me know him, letting me have some access. Maybe we can spend Summers together and he and I can bond and he will know he has a father who cares for him."

"I will think about that. My world would have been completely bleak had I not had Charlie on my side. I do know fathers have value. It's not what I wanted either. I always imagined I would be married long before I hit the dreaded thirties. It's a different world, not so many people become couples wanting to stay together forever. They just do it knowing it's temporary, until someone else comes along that they like better. I hate this new world but I have to live in it, so I have to accept this is the only way, for me. I tell you what, Charlotte was a really lucky woman."

"I don't know how you can say that. The way she died, all alone, in pain."

"I didn't mean that. Her life was about more than her death, Edward. You loved her and she knew that. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have a man cherish me, other than Charlie. You made her happy, I know that. She felt your tender caresses, she knew what your hands expressed. You radiate love and care and I know that was for her, not me, but now I know how good it could have been. Had I ever met my soulmate. God, in a way I was better off never knowing. She was lucky, Edward. Lucky to have you. Never forget that."

"I was lucky to have her. I was so very lucky to have been given a second chance, even if it had to end so badly. I was truly happy with her, Bella. Char was my world and I had someone to live for. It's a sad and lonely world without that. I miss her so much. Everything reminds me every day that she is gone. Like even matching up my socks when I take them out of the dryer. Char did that. Having to remember everyone's birthdays, having to call my Mom, having to make my own bed, lie in it and wait for it to warm up from my body alone. Char used to warm my bed. God, I can't handle this. You should go."

"Um, Edward, this is my house."

"No, you should go home, to Florida or wherever you said. I don't think I _can _cope after all. I think it would be better if I never know. You promise to have a scan if the test is positive, and I'll never bother you again. I wanted a baby with Charlotte, not..."

"It's okay. I understand. Not with me, not with some stranger who stole your sperm. You are a good man, Edward, and I'm really sorry for everything I did to you."

Her bag was already packed, she showered and dressed and ate the breakfast I made her and insisted she eat, then I took her to SeaTac and bought her a ticket so she could catch a plane home. It was the sensible thing to do.

Why didn't it feel like that when I put my arms around her and kissed her goodbye?

Why didn't it feel that way when I watched her plane fly away?

Why didn't it feel that way when I lay in my cold bed that night?

Why did it feel like I had thrown away my last to chance be happy?


	3. Chapter 3

**Unbeta'd, unedited, will come back and fix typos after Kismet and I go chase soldier crabs down the beach. Cheers, and thanks for the many generous reviews. x o x **

The One Night Stand

Chapter 3

Bella's POV

Well, yeah, that went well. I wasn't sure whether to try and strike up a conversation with Edward on the trip to Seattle but it seemed like maybe everything had already been said so I faked sleeping and soon enough it became the real thing. Then I expected it to be sort of awkward at the airport but funnily enough, when he hugged me he pulled me in really close and held me for a lot longer than I could have hoped for and his hands were around me, and I could even feel his thumbs rubbing up and down against my back. It didn't feel like he hated me, and his eyes looked kind of torn and regretful, or maybe I just saw that there to console myself.

Then he kissed me, just a soft and gentle friendly kiss, but that too went on rather long and when it ended, he rested his forehead against mine and held both my hands, tangling our fingers together.

To an onlooker, it would have seemed the opposite to what it was. I got sweet smiles and knowledgeable glances, and one of the ladies watching us spoke to me on the plane when finally the last call came and we parted.

"Newlyweds. And you two have never been parted before, am I right?"

I wasn't about to rain on her parade and nobody ever mistook me for someone's wife before. I liked it, I liked the fantasy that was nothing like the truth so I smiled and dabbed at my eyes, which were crying a little, and let her go on about how soon I would be back and she even gave me a few tips on what type of lingerie no man can resist.

I must remember those brands, you never know. Some day I may even find the courage to sleep with a man again as unlikely as it seems at the moment.

I feel like a thief and in truth, I'm thoroughly ashamed of myself and my actions, I never considered him, the 'donor', for a minute.

I started imagining, what if he had stolen an egg from me and was going to make a baby without my knowledge? I mean, it's not possible but if it were, how would I feel if I came face to face with my daughter one day when she was all grown up, and I had missed out on raising her and had no say in her conception?

You wouldn't like that at all, now would you Bella Swan?

Bella Swan, Sperm Stealer.

Maybe I should have that branded on my forehead to warn other men about me. Not that I can imagine ever trying that little piece of fuckery again.

Alice had emailed me before I even got home so I was reading and answering on my iPhone as the taxi headed for my apartment and she was really mad that Edward had snatched me away and sent me home like some errant school girl without giving her and Rose a chance to say Good-bye properly.

On the good side, Rose had holidays approaching and wanted to come stay with me here shortly so I had that to look forward to.

The apartment was cold and empty, seeing as nobody knew when I would be arriving back, but it was spotless clean and smelled nice. There was some food in the fridge so I made myself lunch and sipped on a coffee and sighed.

Not my finest moment, that trip to Forks.

Like losing my Dad wasn't bad enough, I had to top it by completely fucking up and getting caught out. How stupid was I , leaving that chart out. I probably assumed the man I selected would be as clueless as the other men I have been with and wouldn't even look at it, let alone know what it was and how to read it.

Trust me to take home a doctor.

God, Alice's brother! I mean, she never really talked much about them, and she called them The Bros, and not so much by their names so they were shadowy kinds of unknowns we knew existed but never saw proof of. She used to go away to meet up with them and her BioDad every year for four weeks in Summer break and stay somewhere halfway between Forks and where they lived so no, I had never seen either of them before.

Much as we liked Esme, their house was a mansion and intimidated Rose and I so we tended to meet at my house while we were school girls. Charlie was always at work so we had the whole place to ourselves and we did the usual stupid things. Tried smoking Rose's dad's cigarettes which he never noticed had gone missing, even tried weed once, God, it was awful.

Stole one of those single nip mini bottles of vodka Esme brought home off some plane trip she'd been on and we shared it out and pretended to be totally drunk on our tiny shares of alcohol. Prank called the teachers, called up boys Rose fancied and she did the heavy breathing thing into the phone.

She thought she sounded sexy as, we thought she sounded like an asthmatic dog. We lay on my bed and made up stories about our future affairs with movie stars and pop singers because the local boys were not worth dreaming about, and Rose and Alice always got heated up about who got Johnny Depp. I never joined it because it wasn't like they would ever see him in person so he would never have to choose, and I suppose he didn't fancy silly empty headed school girls anyway.

Oh, and the trades. "I'll promise not to sleep with Leonardo Di Caprio if you don't sleep with Brad Pitt."

"Okay, then you keep your hands off Keanu and I won't touch Tom Cruise."

We saw Titanic at the cinema ten times in the three weeks it was showing. We swapped posters off our bedroom walls around when one of us fell seriously in love with some star another of us was over.

We shared clothes and shoes and did one another's hair and Rose gave Alice a horrific haircut and pierced my ear with a red hot darning needle and a cork, fuck did that hurt.

And yes, I did mean ear, singular. I wouldn't let her do the other one.

We drew fake tattoo's on one another and pretended they looked like the real deal and Esme scrubbed Alice's off her neck until she was red raw so we didn't try that again, at least, not where they would be on show.

But discussions about brothers? Nope.

Brothers weren't hot, pop stars were hot. We sang into our hair brushes and scared the local alley cats away, and snuck out our windows at night to meet up, often to sit on the front lawn of the house of some boy one of them was crushing on, and in time Rose lost her virginity and then Alice did, and I was the only one too afraid to follow through.

Not that I was popular with boys. Mike made a few weak attempts to feel me up but that was as promiscuous as I got in High School.

God I miss my girls when we are apart. They truly are my soul sisters and we will be best friends forever and even the little error in judgement won't stop Alice loving me nor me her. We agreed many years ago to never fall out over any boy.

When two of us fancied the same boy we tossed a coin and the winner got him.

Our teenage years were such fun. Growing up was the hard part.

College and those two had competitions about who could hook up with the most guys and I belatedly joined in by Senior Year and of course, I came a very distant third. My grand total of three was pathetic against their scores but amazingly high to me.

Three guys, I was a slut! At last!

Then came the parting of the ways and real dating and worse men and we started thinking about how it was time to grow up and settle down and the search was on, for 'decent' men and all three of us failed.

Then I made it big, and became the rich one, and Rose found her modelling career ending because she hit 25, and Alice starting being noticed for her designs so she hired Rose as her catwalk model and extended her career for another five years.

And now here we are. Rose imagines herself in love with Alice's other brother, though she had not shared that snippet with us before I went there, mainly because Emmett was the first guy to not fall for her charms. And Alice was secretly in love with the unavailable Jasper Whitlock who seemed to be in a never- ending relationship, then Bitch dumped him and Alice started pining in earnest, with hope.

And I gave up dating because it sucked big time, and instead planned single motherhood and for the first time, we girls had secrets we didn't share.

That brings us right up to date.

None of us three have what we want.

Still.

It was easier when it was Leonardo and Brad and Keanu.

I threw myself into my work and counted down the days until I could do a test. Every morning I scrunched up my boobs in my hands and tried to detect any discomfort or pain and Rose was always calling, asking if I thought I was or I wasn't.

Alice was not so happy that I may have her niece or nephew inside me, so she rarely called, just emailed, and amazingly Jasper Whitlock finally noticed she existed and she started a relationship slowly but surely and the first time they slept together, we had a three way phone conference call and squealed like we had back in High School.

Finally I decided to do everything right and went to my local GP and asked for the fully monty. Urine and blood tests, and I was three days late so surely it would be decisive, one way or the other.

When she sat down and smiled, I suddenly felt really afraid and conflicted. Yes, I was pregnant and that was great but I was also carrying a baby of a man who never wanted to give me one of his and my life could get really complicated now.

Rose was thrilled and jumped on a plane when I reached seven weeks and just about hugged me to death at the airport when she ran off the plane.

"You did it! Congratulations, I'm so fucking happy for you! Wait, I have gifts, open this one first," she ordered, thrusting what was clearly a prettily wrapped book into my hands.

My face must have been a picture when I ripped the wrapping off.

"Yeah," she said grimacing," 'The Story Of Me In Mommy's Tummy', I know, it sounds like you ate your kid, but I couldn't find one called 'When My Clever Mommy Bingo'ed With The One Chance Baby'."

"The one chance baby?" I questioned.

"Bella, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Edward is never going to fall for the "come up and see me sometime, I swear I'm not trying to steal more sperm' line. So, yeah, this is the One Chance Baby. God, I'm so thrilled for you. Oh, you get what that book is? You know how new Mom's get all sentimental and take home the crib tags and the baby's wristband and all that sentimental shit from the maternity ward and stick it all in Baby's First Book of Crap, well, I was thinking, that is so sentimental. And who is even more sentimental? Bella. So she needs to start her kid a diary starting with how she felt when she pee'd on the stick and all that stuff. So, there it is. Bella's sentimental journey from toilet bowl to delivery table."

"Thanks Rose, you know me too well."

"I did buy one of those Baby's First Books as well. But I'm giving it to you in hospital after you squeeze the kid out. It's going to have his hair, I can just tell. And what if it has those freaky green eyes? At least then you won't have to strain your brain thinking of a name. Emeralda.

You know, like Esmeralda, but with emerald in it."

"Actually seeing Edward will never know the baby exists, I'm thinking maybe Charlotte, after his wife. Just sort of as a thank you to her for teaching that man how to be so gentle and caring in bed. I know, you are going to say she also taught him how to fuck, but I prefer thinking of gentle things now I'm all maternal and glowing. Can you see my glow?"

"You've always glowed, it's called being pale as shit."

"Thanks Rose, now don't kill my buzz. Can you believe it? I'm having a baby to the World's Prettiest Father."

I know I should be all contrite and be on my knees begging forgiveness for my sins and joining a nunnery to repent but with Rose, I feel like I can just forget the sinful way this baby started, and just be happy.

We made up some pretty story about the true love pairing that led to this conception to write in the pregnancy diary and Rose suggested we 'kill' Edward so it's a beautiful but tragic love story.

"Then your sweet, sweet Daddy gave his life saving a little kitten who was stuck up a tree so Mommy raised you as a single mother. But every time you see a kitten, you think of him, and remember him, my child."

"Rose, you want to collaborate on my next book? I'm totally using that shit. But we are not killing Edward. He's gone to Africa to be a Aid Worker and can't come home because those orphans need him more than we do. I mean it, that's my story and you should get used to it now. No slip ups and no mentioning the real Edward ever again."

"Yes Ma'am. Edward's in Africa, no relation to Aunty Alice's brother. Got it. Maybe you should change African Edward's name. Go with some name she will never hear again."

"What, like Emmett? How's that going by the way?"

"I am ready to admit defeat. I decided Green Eyes was right, I was stalking him so I tried a new tactic. Ignoring him, letting him chase me."

"And?"

"Yeah, I guess in a game of chasey you need to find someone willing to participate. I haven't laid eyes on him for weeks. I guess Rose needs to move on and let one of those eager guys at the club have their wicked way before her you-know-what seals itself shut from lack of use."

"Patience Rose. Give it another few months, I'm sure your you-know-what is enjoying the uncustomary rest."

"Maybe. I look at the photo of him on my screensaver sometimes and kid myself he's not that special then I end up just looking through all the photos I took of him without his knowledge and think 'Fuck yeah, girl, you have gotta have a taste of that,' and it keeps me going. Do you think I will revirginize like Edward did?"

"Sure, maybe, if you abstain for the next thirty five years. He only had been with two partners, you have been with...more than two."

"Fuck yes I have. I think I may have hit triple digits. Damn, I should have bought myself a How Many Guys Have I Banged diary back in the day and kept a record."

"And you could have given them a rating out of ten and and a thumbs up/thumbs down."

"See, this is why you are a writer and I walk down a catwalk in other people's clothes for a living."

After the scan to make sure it had embedded itself in my womb, mainly for the peace of mind of a man who doesn't know anyway, we spent the entire day in baby shops, just looking. Except for a few small things. And a couple of little pink frocks. And a sailor suit that was to die for. And some tiny shoes. Oh, and a blanket. Yellow, sensible, suitable for him or her.

But nothing much.

Rose had already given me a stash of things she felt were essential.

Embroidered jeans in newborn size. A crop top that would fit a kitten. Hair thingeys, headbands I guess they are called. Some seriously nice baby sized running shoes with a fancy brand name. No coupon for 10% off her first pair of Manolo's though, that was a surprise.

It was so good having her stay with me and I could talk baby all day and she just kept toasting my one chance baby with a variety of alcoholic beverage's while I sipped some freshly squeezed concoction of fruits and vegetables she made for me and assured me would do the baby good.

On the day I reached ten weeks, the publisher sent a photographer around to take a new photo for the jacket of my new book because she decided the old one was too dated, so I dressed up and Rose did my make-up and hair and I posed oh so naturally, smelling a rosebud in my garden, as you do. Leaning against the gazebo smiling seductively, or like I was drunk and about to face plant as Rose said.

She decided to move things up a notch and tossed me this pretty little teddy bear she had obviously bought in the hope of being Godmother, just as the camera clicked and everyone liked that particular shot best. I looked happy and surprised and the bear looked really pretty and I was holding up up against my cheek by luck, so I kind of knew that would be the chosen photo.

Of course she let slip I was pregnant so somehow the blurb about me on the back cover got updated and they included the statement "Isabella is excitedly expecting her first child soon and plans to name the baby Charlotte or Edward."

Yes, Rose has a big mouth.

I guessed it was as good a way as any for Edward to find out about his child even though he never read my novels. It felt like I had told him but not told him, if that makes sense. Fate would decide if he ever read the dust jacket. The next morning I regretted it but it was too late, they were rushing to get the new dust jackets printed in time as it was, so no changes were possible.

I knew I had to tell Alice and maybe even Esme.

Not Edward, he didn't want to know so I didn't add him to my list of people who should be informed. But plenty of time, I could wait a few more weeks.

Yes, I know, a delaying tactic but I was nervous about how the news would be greeted by his family if I did spill. I really had to, now it would be on a thousand books in every book store around the world.

Shit, that was a really bad idea.

Rose was leaving two days later and we actually had an early night. I felt a little off but we had been to a Thai Restaurant and had some spicy food so I wasn't concerned at first.

Then the bleeding began, and then it really increased, and I lost my baby in the ER in the local hospital.

I was shocked, it hadn't occurred to me this could happen. Not to the one chance baby.

And then they checked me over and told me I didn't even have to be admitted, it was a complete 'abortion' and I could go home, rest, and would be fine in a few days.

Rose cancelled her return ticket and stayed on for another week but I wanted her to leave so I could breakdown completely.

She reluctantly did go after promising not to tell anyone about the pregnancy at all, seeing it was no longer an issue and I sank into a funk so deep I was prescribed several mood altering anti depressant drugs.

Just as they began to kick in, I needed them more than ever. Rose called in a complete panic. Our sister by choice was unconscious after a road accident and things looked grim.

X~x~X

EPOV

I always thought being a doctor was the best career in the world, and for someone who needed his days full and his nights often interrupted, it was that. I didn't want time to think because every time I allowed myself to just relax, I thought about her. And if I slept too long, she filled my dreams as well. I guess my body had adapted to abstinence after five years then along she came and reawakened things better left sleeping, so my dreams were all rather erotic. I woke myself up, panting, crushing a pillow beneath me, or else only became aware it was only a dream when I rolled 'us' and pulled her on top of me and the weight was all wrong.

No long brown hair falling down her shoulders and pert little breasts, no deep brown eyes looking in to mine, no full lips being licked in a way that made me...

Well, put it this way, more often than not I awoke to sticky sheets and a heart beating out of control.

By day my memories were different. Just seeing a slim woman in a too big sweater made my heart lurch and unfortunately it seemed to be a fashion that was popular this Winter.

Why anyone would hide away and disguise their pretty little figures under layers of knitted fabric is beyond me but they were what I looked at twice, not the girls in tight fitting ski outfits.

Carlisle, by luck, fit right in with my plans. I asked him if I could be rostered on as much as possible for a few months until I got her out of my system, and he smiled broadly and slapped me on the back.

"Bless you, Edward. I want to take your Mother away on a cruise. She needs some sun and we saw this package deal. Sixteen weeks, eight countries, all meals included. It seems like an offer too good to resist but as always, she thinks you need her here but.."

"If I'm working all the time she will never see me anyway."

"Yes. Are you sure? I don't want to have to cut this vacation short because you burn out."

"I'm not going to burn out, I'm thirty two, not a hundred and nine. Go, have fun, relax. You are only young once."

"I know you are joking but Esme makes me feel like a teenager. You have no idea what she does to me ..."

"And I'd like to keep it that way. Now go call someone and grab that deal, Carlisle."

Our Replacement Dad is a great guy, light years more friendly than our BioDad, and by luck he is our father Masen's cousin, so he too is a Cullen. Esme didn't even have to change her surname when she remarried but she does enjoy signing herself as Esme Cullen Cullen. I guess some of us never grow up, and some of us grow up too fast.

Sometimes I feel more like the parent as they ask me at the last minute to cover one of his shifts because they want to go out on a date, at least for the next few months I know when I'll be working, and when I won't, for a change.

At first it worked well. I was always either working or sleeping or eating and had little time for anything else because I was also on call. This gave me the perfect excuse to stay away from partying with Emmett, something the boy in him still enjoyed, and he pouted at losing his playmates.

Jasper was strangely 'busy' a lot and I suspected he was seeing someone new which I hoped was true. Maria had not been my favorite person by a long shot and I for one thought he was much better off without her. With luck, he was finally seeing things the same way.

Alice came over to stock my freezer and do my grocery shopping but I asked her to leave the general housework and washing of my laundry to me, so I always had something waiting to do when I did get home.

I liked winding down slowly while I cleaned my house and sorted my washing. It's just weird that socks had ceased to be a Charlotte reminder now. Instead of seeing her doing this mundane chore for me, now all I could remember was myself telling Bella that story. It was her face, not Char's, that sprang to mind whenever I paired them together, still warm from the dryer.

Emmett told me that was fine, healthy even, because it meant I was moving on at last.

It may be true, I know I only think happy thoughts about my wife now. Something Bella said about her death not being the whole of her life made sense. I had a million happy memories of my short but sweet marriage.

It had never had to stand the test of time but we had been very happy while it lasted.

You'd think that would make one happy enough to just live on memories, instead it makes you crave to have that again and as it can't be with Charlotte next time, I knew I had to open myself up to the possibility of meeting someone else.

I know, why not Bella?

I kept a running update every Friday night.

If she conceived, Bella would be seven weeks pregnant today.

Eight weeks, nine weeks, now we were at twelve weeks.

I could even imagine the baby and I kept a copy of What To Expect When You're Expecting so I could imagine the subtle changes happening to her body as my child grew and slept securely inside her, surely feeling his mother's love for him.

Had the whole sperm stealing fiasco not happened, there's no doubt I would have contacted Bella and tried to have a long distance relationship, and arranged for us to visit one another alternate weekends.

Now I felt it was too late for us. I had thrown her away, she had done something I would never be at peace with.

No, it was better to try here. Geographically Desirable women.

So far things had not gone so well. I asked a nurse out once and we just didn't click but at least we had patients to talk about when it became obvious we really had no interest in hearing more about one another's lives.

So next I tried dating the daughter of a patient but she wanted things to escalate far too quickly for me, so we agreed to be friends, and I closed that door. I hadn't slept with either of them but that didn't seem to matter, I was happy with my memories of Bella.

Then came the night when I seriously wished I had gone with Plan B and become a concert pianist.

Emergency admittance, thirty year old female brought in from a single vehicle accident. The driver was in a following ambulance so I assigned myself the woman patient and hurried to asses her injuries. The looks on the faces of my staff standing around her alerted me this was not good and something else, something personal.

Alice.

My little sister was lying on the gurney unconscious and I had to switch from brother back to doctor and find out what had happened to her, where she was injured.

There were no marks, no cuts, no blood, no bruising but she was deeply unconscious.

Head injury, it seemed, so she was rushed off for a CAT scan and MRI while I stood there in the ER and did my deep breathing in and out slowly to calm myself. I could do little until her results were back, so I went to take a look at the driver as he was hurried inside.

At first I was so surprised I stood there like a dummy. Jasper Whitlock.

Alice had been in his car and it slid on ice and hit a tree. A little too familiar, that scenario, but I pushed the thought away and tried to calm my friend as he attempted to get up and rush to my sister's side.

"How is she? Go work on her, I'm fine. Edward, listen to me. Go save Alice. You have to save her."

"Jasper, your leg is clearly broken and you have a massive contusion on your forehead, you are not fine. Let me help you and I will hand you over to my colleague the second Alice's results are back, and then I will attend to her."

He accepted that and we swiftly assessed that he had been the lucky one. His leg would heal and he had no internal damage, just superficial. He looked like Hell, two black eyes, an Emu egg on his forehead.

Alice was unmarked, yet she was the one in trouble.

I called in a specialist from Seattle and he came post haste by helicopter and we consulted together and concluded she had a problem that could be very bad indeed. Her brain was swollen and that disguised whether we were dealing with a life threatening situation or if she would recover in time, we just couldn't tell yet.

I had no choice but to try and summon my Mother home, and contact our Bio as well. Masen was in Africa, unreachable, and Esme and Carlisle had left the cruise ship and gone with another because the deal had indeed been too good to be true and they'd abandoned ship and not notified us.

I left messages at Embassies along their original route and just hoped they would hear we needed them to come rushing home. They could be anywhere, they were twelve weeks into their trip and in theory somewhere in the UK but nobody could tell me which cruise line they had joined after leaving their original boat, so I spent my downtime at Alice's bedside calling every company listed.

Rose Hale had appeared within an hour of the crash, after hearing what happened and she was amazing. I had to reassess my rather harsh opinion of the girl as she looked after my brother who was in far worse shape than I was. Emmett treated people who were troubled inside their heads but at least they could speak and he could offer guidance. With Alice he could only watch and wait. Emmett was a doer, and it hurt him to know there was absolutely nothing he could do for her. As eldest brother, he took it personally that he had let her get hurt on his watch, but he could hardly have prevented this.

I envied him the girl at his side, it was clear she genuinely had deep feelings for him and wasn't just after a hook-up.

She assured Emm a dozen times none of this was his fault. His argument that he had been playing football in a completely unnecessary extra practice session when the crash happened she dismissed out of hand.

"You are an adult and so is she. She was rolling drunk in the club last night. In theory you could have been getting mugged or fallen in front of a bus at that time, would you consider her guilty of anything for being out there, having fun while that happened? You aren't her keeper. She drives in traffic every day. I don't think she will be impressed if you take her car away and ban her from being in anyone else's when she gets better.

Emmett, if you are meant to die in a plane accident and you never fly, one will crash onto your house. You can't cheat Fate."

That made me think a little about when Charlotte died. I guess things just happen and you can't be everywhere at once. We do leave home, we do leave loved ones by themselves after they reach adulthood. Things happen to them with no warning.

I was used to broken bodies and I had hope that Alice would be okay once the swelling settled down. I had seen patients come in here in worse shape and walk out fully healed weeks later. It could just be a matter of time.

Emmett sat there as pale as Alice was, and to him, all he could see was the worst possible ending. For his own sanity, I sent him home with Rose and hoped she would be some comfort. She clearly wanted to be whatever he needed, and he surrendered and left with her.

Day Two was better and worse. The swelling had peaked and she now had burr holes in her skull to lessen the pressure, and it working. The swelling was receding, but Alice was still not the slightest bit alert. The specialist redid the tests and still, no hints of how this would end up. It could still resolve itself, or it could go bad quickly so he stayed another night in case she needed more surgery in a hurry.

We debated air lifting her to Seattle but the risks of doing that outweighed the possible benefits.

I was beyond exhausted, having worked a 48 hour shift before Alice had been brought in, and I dreamed of Bella when I fell asleep in a chair with my head on Alice's hospital bed, but it was a very small dream. I just dreamt that her hand was holding mine, and when I awoke and she was sitting in a chair beside me, I grabbed my hand back in an automatic reaction.

I regretted that as her face fell even further but she rallied.

"How is she?" she asked me, her eyes holding back tears unsuccessfully.

Despite the state my sister was in, I wanted to reach over and wipe away the salty drops of despair from Bella's cheeks.

"I don't know. I just have no real idea," I replied, standing up to stretch, but mainly to break that fucking inappropriate buzz our bodies had initiated from sitting there touching hands.

"I know you don't want me here but I couldn't not come. It's Alice," she said tearfully.

"Bella, it's fine. I know you are here for her, not me."

"Can I do anything?" she asked and I shrugged. "I'm the doctor and I'm currently useless to her. I guess you can talk to her and let her know you are here, that might help as much as anything else at this point."

"Have you eaten?' she asked, and I tried to think. "I don't remember. I must have, I'm not hungry."

"You should eat. I cooked this, if you want it."

She placed a container of something that smelled rather amazing into my hands and I opened the lid and discovered I was hungry after all. She handed me a fork and a paper napkin.

"It's just mushroom ravioli," she said and I ate the lot without pausing.

"Okay, I take it back. There is something you can do. Keep cooking for me while I have to stay here. I am not game to go home and leave her but the food here sucks."

"Sure, I'd be happy to. I just need to book into the motel and go food shopping. There are tenants in my house."

"Stay at my place. I'm not there anyway, here's my keys," I replied. "There's plenty of food there. Help yourself and use whatever you want. The sheets on the bed are clean, feel free to use it."

She looked exhausted, paler than ever and had faint purple bags under her beautiful brown eyes.

Thanks to her, my sheets were changed every morning, so always fresh.

"Where do you live?" she asked, and I laughed quietly. Of course, she had no idea.

She may be living in my head but in reality, we barely knew one another. I told her my address and she left a while later, after chatting quite naturally to Alice in a one sided conversation. My sister let her talk and didn't interrupt for a change. I could see Bella was thinking the same thing, and like me, she would have given anything for Alice to take over the conversation as she usually did.

She told her that her latest book was about to be released, and she had actually dedicated it to Alice months earlier, as a surprise. Now she warned Alice to wake up so she could go buy a copy as soon as it hit the shops.

It was a joke, I knew she always sent Alice advance copies before they hit the book stores.

"It's weird, she usually does the bulk of the talking, I can't think of what else to say."

"Bella, how are you? Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm okay," she replied. I waited but she didn't elaborate and I had no clue whether I should just ask or wait for her to tell me when she was ready. I had tried to check out her breasts, as often they are the first things to change when a woman is pregnant but the horrid blue sweater she was drowning in was too loose for any clues.

"How's Jasper, more importantly," she asked and I realised I had been the last to know about this budding romance. "You knew?" I asked, shaking my head. I really had been too immersed in work lately.

"Of course. She emailed me after every date. They sound like a match made in Heaven to me. He must be so worried about her."

"Yeah, well he is trapped in traction in the bones ward. I give him updates but there's not much to say. She stays the same."

"She will get better though? She will come back to us, Edward, won't she?"

"I hope so, love. Now go home and get some rest. If you manage to get some sleep, come sit with me tonight if you want to and don't forget to bring me my dinner," I said, keeping it light and friendly. "There are ready meals in the freezer to reheat if you don't feel like cooking. Anything will do, and make sure you eat as well."

She looked shocked at my words so I repeated them in my head as she walked out and cringed at the endearment. She must think I'm bi polar. Shoving her out of my life onto a plane, never contacting her even though Alice would have given me her email address, now I had called her 'love'.

I was tired and had not expected her to be here, so I guess I had let my guard down. The weird sort of half relationship I imagined we had in my mind was not real. She had spent two nights with me. The rest of it was just fantasy. For all I knew she had a boyfriend by now and was pregnant to him. Or not pregnant at all, and the baby in my head didn't exist.

I risked leaving Alice long enough to have a shower, and a quick cat nap in the on call room and woke up four hours later, immediately panicking until I checked my sister and found nothing had changed.

I walked down to Jasper's ward and paused outside the door. Bella was sitting beside him and she was talking to him animatedly and they were both laughing. Not a sight I expected to see. Jasper usually looked suicidal. He was eating something from one of my plastic containers and I hoped it wasn't my dinner, so I walked in and Bella smiled shyly at me.

"Tell me Jasper did not con my meal off you," I said and she reached into her bag and handed over my own.

"This woman cooks like a fucking professional chef. I'm talking her into scrapping the housewife porn and writing a cookery book," he said around a mouthful of angel hair pasta with a sauce that defied description, as I discovered when I ate my own.

"Carbs again, sorry, I slept for hours in your big comfortable bed, and woke up in a panic and had to make something quick and easy," she explained.

"Tis delicious," I answered with my own mouth full, not stopping eating.

"Did you eat?" I asked when I finished. She looked down at her hands and nodded.

"Really, Bella? You have to eat as well."

She bit her lip and nodded and I struggled to decipher what was going on with her. Was she eating? Was she pregnant?

Jasper's nurse came in to settle him for the night so Bella and I sat back beside Alice and I took her hand and kissed her knuckles as I had that first night.

She smiled at the memory, and looked up at me.

"I'm not pregnant. You can relax. I thought of asking Alice to give me your number a hundred times but there didn't seem much point. I know you didn't want to know anything but I did wonder whether you'd be glad to know it was all over."

"What do you mean? All over?"

She looked up sadly. "I miscarried at ten weeks. It wasn't dangerous or anything. It happened quickly and was complete and I didn't have to have any treatment."

"I'm sorry, Bella. I know you wanted that baby. Maybe ...God, I don't know what to say. I know you don't think it was for the best and I really am sorry you didn't achieve your dream yet but maybe one day... "

"I'm letting go of that dream. You were right, it's not fair to have a baby alone, deliberately planned without a father. I don't believe in marriage and I have my work. I have a good life, better than a lot of people. I started sponsoring another group home of children in Africa, so I do have children in a way. I think the whole thing has shown me I'm too selfish to raise a child anyway. After what I did. That was hardly a reasonable or mature way to start a family. I'm thinking about Jasper's idea, a new project is just what I need. Maybe I should start writing something more useful than romance stories. It's not like they even reflect real life. They are just escapism."

Rather than feeling relieved I would not have a stray child out there, growing up without me, all I felt was sad for the woman at my side. I almost wanted to tell her we could try again, I would willingly give her my sperm this time but I couldn't in all conscience do that. Last time it had been involuntary on my side, and I hadn't been happy about it, it would be completely hypocritical to change my mind just because I wanted a link of some kind to her.


	4. Chapter 4

The One Night Stand

Chapter 4

Edward's POV

I heard the familiar voices approaching and went to the door. Carlisle marched in and went straight to Alice's bed, with just a nod at Bella and I, and he took Alice's chart and read it quickly.

Esme was behind him, crying loudly so I grabbed her and pulled her into a hug and she grabbed at me desperately.

"She is going to be okay, isn't she, Edward?. Tell me she's going to get better."

Carlisle was examining my sister and I walked Mom to the bed so she could at least hold Alice's hand.

"We don't know. Her brain is almost back to it's normal size and she's responding to the drugs.

Don't panic over the holes in her skull, they saved her life. She's healing Mom, we just need her to wake up. Then we'll know more," I assured her and met my stepfather's eyes over her shoulder.

He knew as well as I did that Alice might never wake up and even if she did, the damage could be horrendous. She may be damaged to any degree, from mildly to completely vegetative, or anywhere in between.

As they sat and held out hands to one another, I surrendered my Mom to Carlisle and noticed somehow Bella had slipped out. I really wanted to go home now he was here and could take over watching and I kissed my Mom and told them I would be back after I grabbed some sleep.

"Oh of course, dear. You look exhausted. Go home, Carlisle and I will be here and the nurse says the specialist is sleeping in the on call room so when he comes out to check Alice, we'll talk to him. Thank you for doing all you could, sweetheart. Now go sleep. Drive carefully. Seat belt, Edward."

Carlisle was holding out his hand so I shook it and walked out, looking up and down the corridor. No Bella. I walked to the front desk and asked the woman on night duty and she said Bella had left already so I drove home. Her rental car was in my driveway and I went inside and walked upstairs, where the light was on.

Bella was standing by the mirror on my bedroom wall, brushing her long brown hair. She was clearly surprised to see me and she looked a little panicked and moved to block my view of something on the table in front of her.

"Bella? What are you hiding?" I asked, and walked to her and gently moved her away. A few bottles of prescription drugs stood there and I frowned and silently asked her permission. She stepped away and sat down on the edge of my bed.

I picked up an iron supplement, sure, she would have lost blood. Multivitamins, no doubt she needed these too because she didn't look like she was eating properly. The other three were all anti depressants but surely she didn't need this much medication? I recognized each drug and cringed at how bad she must have been to need all these chemicals in her system. Even at my worst I'd only ever taken two of the three.

"I have been a bit sad,"she said, understating things completely. She must have been borderline suicidal.

"Charlie?" I asked.

"Dad, the baby dying, just everything. It didn't deserve to die because of what I did. I deserved to lose it, but now you have lost three children. I'm so sorry."

"Bella, it wasn't anything you did that caused the miscarriage, they happen. You cannot blame yourself. Believe me, I've been there, remember. We really are not that powerful. We assume responsibility for things we had no control over. I'm sorry. I didn't know it was so bad for you. Are you being counselled at least?"

"Yes, but now I'm here .."

"I can get Emmett to talk to you. You know he'll want to help. And it will give him something to do and he needs that distraction. He's put all his regular patients onto another psychologist at the moment and he needs to be working. You will be helping him by letting him help you."

"Okay, if he wants to," she replied. She suddenly looked at my bed. "Oh, I can sleep on the couch, it's your bed. I'll just get clean sheets..."

"Bella, I'm so tired I couldn't care if there were no sheets. Just stay with me tonight please."

She looked shocked and I hastily added "I'm not asking you for sex, I just need a warm body beside me for this one night so I can sleep properly. Is that okay?"

"Sure, I guess. I owe you for that night you stayed with me after the breakdown I had over Charlie," she replied.

"No, you don't owe me anything. I just want a friendly pair of arms, can you allow that after what I did? I'm sorry for railroading you onto that plane. I panicked. I'm out of my depth around you. I haven't had feelings for anyone since Char. It's new and it's a bit scary to be honest."

She shrugged and climbed into my bed and I stripped off down to my boxers and went to clean my teeth and such, then slid into the other side of my bed and reached a hand out and she moved closer and snuggled into the side of my body and I lay my head beside hers.

"How are you really? Physically? Are you still bleeding? It was, what, two weeks ago?"

"Yes, it was, and the bleeding has stopped now. I feel..well, I don't really feel anything much. I'm kind of numb and doped out and can't feel my extremities at times but it's a side effect of the drugs. Like the dry throat. I wake up a lot during the night so maybe this isn't a good idea. I'll disturb you."

"Nothing short of a freight train could disturb me. Now sleep. May I kiss you goodnight?"

Even in my exhausted state, I needed to kiss her. I just craved to feel her lips on mine and I truly had no agenda. She was wearing a long sleeved, floor length nightdress, it wasn't as if I was going to feel her up. I knew the fact we had spent that one night together was not automatic permission for me to be allowed to touch her again.

That first night had been a mutually consensual night about sex and I had no interest in repeating anything that basic again. I had needed it back then, sure, but somehow , now, if there was going to be anything between us again, it had to be more. Right from the start. If she didn't have any feelings for me, then after tonight, I would sleep on the couch myself.

She licked her lips to wet them but not in that sensual, seductive way she had in the past and I allowed my lips to caress hers and held her close all the way along my body. It was a indication of how exhausted I was, that I didn't respond by getting turned on at this contact, even with that buzz happening.

I felt comfort and caring from her kiss, and hoped I was sending her the same message.

When she finally pulled back to breathe, I pecked her cheek and lay my head down and closed my eyes. She reached to turn off the bedside lamp and I felt her snuggle into a comfortable position and I kissed the top of her head.

I was asleep seconds later.

My return to wakefulness happened many hours later.

Bella.

I swear I can smell her sweet aroma.

That's right. She really is here this time.

But who is she talking to?

I gingerly opened my eyes and lay there in amazement. Although she was asleep, she was moving about in a distressed way, having a proper one sided conversation but it made no sense.

"_I'm so sorry, Charlotte. I really want to hold you in my arms. I was so happy and then I failed you. I am so sorry, baby."_

Not sure what to do, I held her firmly and spoke calmly, assuring her she would be okay, that I was there, and she settled against me, one hand grabbing my arm tightly. Clearly a night terror of some sort.

The words she had said were bizarre, it was almost like she was channelling me on one of my bad nights that had only just stopped occurring recently.

We lay there in that tight embrace until she woke, then she seemed surprised to be in my arms and I casually released her and she sat up.

"Did I wake you? Was I talking? Rose said I screamed in my sleep sometimes that last week she was at my place, after..."

"You were talking and getting upset but I calmed you down. Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, but thanks. It's just something I do now it seems, I don't know how to stop it and even the drugs aren't changing the frequency it happens. I did warn you I would disturb your sleep."

"It's fine. I should call and see how Alice did last night, do you want to have the first shower?"

Alice was unchanged yet again and while I was glad she hadn't deteriorated, the longer she remains in a coma, the more worrying it is.

Bella drank copious quantities of hot sweet tea, no doubt to counteract the dry throat, while I had coffee and toast.

She insisted on cooking so I did laundry and made the bed to fill in time, then we left.

Rose stood up from where she was seated between Emmett and my Mom, and pulled Bella into her arms.

"Hey, I knew you'd come. Sorry I haven't come to find you earlier, I've been busy."

"It's fine. I'm glad you have been able to be here for Emmett," Bella replied, winking at Rose.

I realized I hadn't even introduced the girl who shared my bed sometimes to my family.

"Carlisle, Emmett, I'd like you to meet Bella Swan," I said and my Mom smiled and took her hand.

"It's good to see you again, Bella. It just seems wrong, seeing you and Rosalie together and not have Alice joking with you. It was always the three of you for all those years. I know the girls fly over and visit you but Forks hasn't been the same since you left. Thank you for coming for Alice, are you staying long?"

Bella smiled and patted Mom's hand affectionately. "As long as I'm of any use. It's not like I have anyone to rush home to. I just need to have Alice bawl me out for my lack of fashion sense before I can even think of going back to Florida."

"I know what you mean, it's just not the same choosing your own clothes, is it? I laugh so much when she packs four suitcases to go visit you for a weekend, I know she's taking your entire fall wardrobe to you because she doesn't trust you to go shopping yourself."

"Dad was just the same. Worse even. When I packed up his closet, it made me resolve to never get to the point where I had clothing more than ten years old, like he had. I think he even had jeans that were older than me."

"We all miss Charlie. He was the best Police Chief Forks ever had. I'm so sorry we were away and missed the funeral. Carlisle had some family emergency just the day before your father died and we were on a plane when it happened and we couldn't get tickets on a plane to get back in time. I feel badly about that. You were like another daughter when you were a schoolgirl."

"Thanks, Esme. I always wished you were my Mom."

"That would have been awkward and unfortunate in the circumstances," Rose chuckled."What the Hell smells so good by the way?"

Bella opened the insulated bag she carried and started handing out individually boxed meals all around and everyone suddenly looked hungry.

"it's just a sweet and sour chicken recipe I adapted. I hope you like it. Edward said the food gets a little monotonous here in the hospital."

"It sucks," Emmett said loudly, opening his share and wolfing it down so it barely hit the sides.

"My, this is delicious," said Esme.

I inhaled the aroma and licked my lips. This woman could stay and cook for me forever. I had really struck it lucky, a girl who was beautiful, intelligent, self employed, and generous to a fault as well as adventurous in the bedroom, and just as amazing in the kitchen.

"Are you going to marry her or can I?" Emmett asked me, and I felt myself redden.

"Um, I was thinking of asking her out on a date actually," I said, hoping it would not embarrass Bella that I was saying it in front of everyone.

Bella blushed and took two containers from the bag and I handed her clean forks.

"I didn't think you were going to eat for a moment there. It was delicious, you really are a brilliant cook."

"I'll eat with Jasper, I'll go sit with him and tell him there's no news about Alice yet. But she is no worse either, right?"

"No, she's stable. I guess we should be grateful for that small mercy," Carlisle replied, guarding the rest of his meal from Emmett who was eying it off. "I'm actually still eating, Emmett. Some of us like to savour the taste of anything this enjoyable. Maybe you should try it some time."

Bella left and all eyes were on me.

"Fuck, don't be too cautious, she might get away while you sit around debating if you want her or not. She's fucking amazing. I really like her and she's Rose's best friend, and all. It would be great for us all to be one big happy family," Emmett said, and Rose's eyes lit up at the implication of what he had said. I have to admit Rose is the perfect woman for my brother.

Maybe we had all met our soulmates at last.

I frowned at that thought. I had never considered any woman my soulmate. Char and I had been in love and were well suited but even she had never been as similar in so many ways as Bella was to me. Of course, our shared habit of blaming ourselves for everything that happened was not a fortunate trait to have in common but it was there, no denying that.

I pulled my brother aside as everyone chatted, and told him I needed him to be Bella's counsellor while she was here and he agreed. I think he was finding all the sitting round harder than he had thought and he knew he needed to do something. His rooms were here, he could be five minutes away and not miss anything.

"I may as well start now, you go talk to Jas and I'll take Bella in for a chat. Anything you know that I should know?"

"You know she had a miscarriage recently of course."

His eyebrows rose in surprise. "She has a boyfriend? Sorry for saying what I did then, I hope I didn't embarrass her. I assumed she was with you. Like, _with you."_

"It's complicated. It was my ...I made her pregnant, just leave it at that. I'm sure she will explain everything."

"She looks smaller than I remember her from that night in the club," he said and I nodded. "She is tiny. I was surprised myself last night when she was beside me in bed. I guess I had forgotten, and just imagined she was bigger."

"Like totally the opposite to Charlotte. It just makes me wonder what your type is."

"I guess Char was fairly tall," I said, thinking back.

"Edward, come on, she was a lovely person but she was an Amazon. Tall, well built, and very comfortable to lie on one would imagine."

"She wasn't overweight, Emmett."

"If you say so. I think you always saw her differently to the way everyone else did. You never noticed she was on the chubby side."

"Emmett, she was average, I think I was the one who saw her naked. She wasn't even slightly overweight."

"Fine, whatever you say. And Bella isn't petite and Rose isn't a Barbie doll clone. It's fine, I wasn't disparaging Char, I was just saying they couldn't be much more different body types if they tried. I like tits and bums and Char had a very nice full matching set. I envied you being allowed access to all that largesse."

I shook my head. I was surprised at his words and reminded myself to ask Esme if he was right.

Bella went off with Emmett to his rooms, and I sat with Jasper as he closed his eyes and moaned as he ate the meal Bella cooked.

"Fuck me, I'm starting to wonder if eating her cooking is better than sex? Shit, she should open a restaurant. It would be booked out every night and all the residents of Forks would double their weight in no time. Yet she is so slim herself."

That reminded me of Emmett's comments.

"Jasper, how would you describe Charlotte?"

"Friendly, happy, a really genuinely nice woman. Why?"

"I meant, size wise."

"Big and beautiful. Heavier than I like but she carried it well and her personality was such that you didn't really think about how big she was."

"I'm stunned. I never saw her that way at all."

"You loved her, love overlooks faults. You've never been judgemental, you just saw her inner Goddess and embraced it. There's nothing wrong with that."

"I'm just so surprised. I think of her as absolutely average sized."

"Maybe for in the fifties when Marilyn Monroe was considered slim. What's it matter, you loved her, she loved you. You were both happy, and you saw her with rose colored glasses. I think that's nice."

"Yeah. So, tell me, is Bella average?"

"Bella's teeny tiny pocket sized but it's funny, I remembered her as being a bit better covered that night in the bar. She's lost weight."

"Has she?"

"Definitely. But if she eats her own cooking she will give Char a run for her money in no time. Does Bella cook desserts because I can only imagine how they would taste after how her main courses taste?" he said closing both empty containers on his bed and handing them to me.

"I don't know, you ask her. I think she has enough on her plate cooking as much as she did today. She isn't in charge of feeding my whole family, you know. She insisted on making this meal for us all. It's not going to be an every day thing. She should be resting and getting better."

"What do you mean?"

"Bella had a miscarriage two weeks ago. She's on an iron supplement and vitamins but I don't think they've kicked in yet. I'm going to ask her about her weight, I'm worried now."

"And that would be different because?"

"What do you mean?"

"You are always worried about something. It must be exhausting being you, taking on all the troubles of the world and taking blame for every unfortunate occurrence. I'm just saying, while Bella is staying here in Forks, why don't you lighten up and have some fun with her. Wait, did you make her pregnant? That night?"

"Yes, but it was a mistake. I didn't mean to."

"Edward, please don't tell me you are angsting over that as well? Just forgive yourself and move on and give her another baby and live happily ever after. I'm not kidding, you let her slip away from you and you will have me to answer to. I don't like many women, you know that, and she is a keeper."

"We will see. It's a bit annoying how everyone wants us to rush into this. I think we need to take it at a sensible pace and see how compatible we are."

"Out of bed? You seemed pretty happy with the way you two were in bed."

"There has to be more to it than sexual compatibility."

"Yes, and there is. Your eyes light up around her. You watch her when she's speaking. You look like you'd kill anyone who hurt her. Just consider maybe she is your chance to have something good in your life again. I bet Char would have loved her."

"Really? I do think she would, too."

"Then go get her, Edward."

"Go get who?" Rose asked as she walked in the room. Jasper held out a hand and Rose slapped it, so apparently they were buds already.

"I was suggesting to Slow and Steady Eddy that he make a play for Bella and maybe she will stick around even after Alice gets better. Don't you think they would make a good couple?"

"There's definitely interest there on her side. She thinks he's the ideal man. She hasn't shut up about how gentle and caring he was in bed since it happened."

"What?" I asked. "I wasn't that gentle with her some of that time."

"Edward, Bella has only ever 'dated' losers before you. Men who took what they wanted and left before the sheets got cold. No kissing, no cuddling afterwards let alone during sex, no caring if she was having a good time as well. She has never been with anyone who treated her right before you. She's shocked you exist and of course she thinks you are way out of her league, but I think you two are a good match."

"I don't know, though. They'd probably argue over which of them was responsible for global warming," Jasper quipped and Rose laughed.

"Okay, high five for that. They are both such fucking deep and tortured souls. She didn't used to be like that. Until she lost Charlie, and then that other unfortunate loss, she was a happy little thing. Always chipper, always having fun. She's changed so much in two short weeks, I can hardly recognise her. I hope she snaps out of this funk soon, I want her back dancing on the tabletop in bars with me...wait. I have Emmett now, I guess those days are behind me."

"Definitely not, Emmett likes girls dancing on tables. He'll probably permanently reserve you a table to dance on in fact. Emmett's a party boy, he won't change. Though maybe he will settle down and only party with you. He seems rather smitten, wouldn't you agree, Edward?" Jasper asked.

"I have to agree, he is already unable to say a complete sentence without Rose's name in it. Seriously Rose, I really appreciate what you've done for him these past few days. It's weird, everything seems to be happening in fast forward because of all the time we are all spending together. I hope all these pairings last after Alice recovers."

"Speaking of my Alice, when do I get unshackled so I can go see her? Jasper asked.

"It could be a week, that bone has to sit in just the right place until it starts to knit. Maybe we could set up a web cam in Alice's room so you can watch her at least?" I suggested.

"I've got just the thing set up in my bedroom, _**don't ask**_, I'll go bring it in now," Rose stated and left.

Jasper and I caught one another's eyes and laughed out loud. Rose was quite a girl. A lesser man than Emmett would never know how to handle her. All his years of screwing around now just seemed like necessary training to enable him to keep up with this woman.

X~x~X

Rose's equipment was perfect and we got the camera set up above Alice's bed and the laptop gave Jasper a constant bird's eye view as my sister slept on obliviously.

Rose opened her bag and handed me a hardcover book with a shiny cover.

"I thought you might want to see Bella's new book before it hit the stores. It's going to really hurt when she remember's the new photo and blurb on the back cover. I think with everything's that's happened she has forgotten."

I turned the book over and was shocked at the photo. Emmett was right, she had lost weight. Her face was much rounder in the photo taken just weeks ago but the line about her expecting her baby immediately replaced that thought. Apart from anything else, it was time to tell my mother because she always read Bella's novels, I now knew, and she would not take long to figure out who fathered the tragic baby.

"Charlotte?" I said in surprise when I read the names.

"Bella credited your wife for training you to be so considerate in bed. She is sure no man is born that way and therefore she thinks you must have been taught by Charlotte. And I think she thought it appropriate that your wife's name live on with your child. I can't help crying every time I remember how happy she was about the One Chance Baby."

"Why did she call it that?" Jasper asked.

"I named it. We all knew Edward would never allow her another chance to 'steal his sperm', right?"

Jasper laughed and they hit knuckles. They were really quite appallingly childish.

"She really wanted that baby, didn't she?" I said sadly.

"You don't know the half of it. We created an entire nursery in the weeks I was there, and every time we went shopping we told one another not to buy any baby stuff and of course, came home with bags full. She could clothe a small countries offspring. That baby was real to her, Edward. She thought it was just a matter of time. I never want to see that look that was on her face ever again when she lost it. It made me think twice about ever agreeing to harbor a sprog in my belly, if it's that devastating if you lose it.

Her world collapsed and died with that little baby."

"That's so sad," Jasper said."She would have been a great Mom. I hope she gets the chance again."

"I doubt it. I think she feels about trying again like Edward feels about remarrying. Too risky. Too much potential for more pain. I think she would consider another pregnancy as just another chance to be hurt. It was probably a way to accept Charlie's passing, although that's not how it started. She planned to conceive on that visit here, but to someone who she would never see again. She never wanted to cause any trouble. That's Bella, she never wants to hurt anyone or rock the boat. She thought she could just go back to Florida and have her baby and never think about who gave it to her. Then Edward got to be the donor and she changed. She wanted the baby to be his, and nobody else's. She decided not to try with anyone else if it hadn't worked. Then it all ended badly. And now she is broken too, just like Edward."

"I'm not broken," I protested.

"Believe us, you are broken, Edward," Jasper replied. "You two are as perfect a match as there is. At the very least you two could lean on one another and help each other heal because you understand how much she is hurting. It's a damned shame that baby died because it would have brought you two together. You would never have rested knowing you had a kid out there and she would have shared. Bella's a sharer. No matter what she said, she would have wanted it's father in it's life and you two would have fallen in love and had your kid be flowergirl at the wedding. It would have been good."

"And Alice and I would have gotten to be bridesmaids," Rose said crossly, like it was my fault that wasn't happening now.

"Hey, here they come. Emmett and I are going to head out for coffee, want to come? Oh sorry, Jas, I guess we can bring you one back?"

"I would appreciate that, thank you darlin," Jasper drawled."Just a coffee though, after those meals I am stuffed."

"Wait. You got two meals?" Rose asked. "Bella said she had eaten so much while she cooked she wasn't hungry," he replied.

"If Emmett finds out, you are a dead man," Rose warned with a laugh.

Bella agreed to come with us so we got the cars and met up in the only coffee shop Forks boasted, and all ordered coffee except for Bella, who was a tea drinker. I added a selection of cakes and pastries to our order and watched to see what Bella liked so I could stock the pantry at home with food she liked. She took a croissant from the serving plate but she didn't actually eat any of it, just crushed it with her fingers as the rest of tried to beat Emmett to grab our preferred snack before he ate the lot.

I frowned and decided to keep an eye on Bella and her eating habits because the way she drained cup after cup of hot tea, it seemed to be her main source of sustenance and that was not acceptable.

She had avoided eating before we left the house and she had merely tasted what she cooked to check for flavor. She had lied to Jasper about that.

Bella elected to go back to the house and rest so she could sit with Alice tonight so I went back inside the hospital to allow Mom and Carlisle to take a break, and Rose and Emmettt came with me.

"Rose, do you think Bella knows how much weight she has lost?" I asked.

"Hey, Edward, let it go. It's trendy to be smaller than size 0 now. I may never approach that size myself, my boobs alone weigh more than Bella does, but Posh Spice carries the look off. Bella can too."

"Don't you lose an ounce," Emmett growled. "That would mean there was less of you for me to enjoy. And that is unacceptable, Rosie. What's the plan for dinner tonight? Is Bella cooking?" he asked hopefully.

"Food and sex, is that all you think about?" Rose asked.

"Boobs. I think about boobs. In fact, I think about your boobs all the time now. I can't believe I never asked you out earlier, I must have been blind."

"Clearly," Rose agreed, stroking his face.

"I think I'll take Jasper his coffee and leave you two alone but behave yourself, we have no idea how much Alice is aware of. Don't do anything you wouldn't do in front of her if she was awake."

As I walked out, I grimaced and thought, that may not be much.

Then I laughed as I realised Jasper would be able to see whatever they got up to on his laptop.

When I got to his room he was chuckling away to himself as he stared at the screen.

"Hey, Edward, want to watch porn? The fact we know the players in it won't put you off, right?" he said.

Nope, I should never have trusted them alone.


	5. Chapter 5

**Excuse today's chapter length, it takes forever to load anything at present so will be shorter.**

The One Night Stand

Chapter 5

EPOV

Bella was asleep in bed when I got home so I checked the kitchen for dirty dishes to see if she had eaten and found nothing other than used cooking utensils, but there was an apple missing from my fruit bowl. Alice had bought that bowl for me and it was divided into sections and rather impractical but at least it would be useful now, because of the giveaway empty gap.

So, she had drunk a lot of tea and eaten an apple.

The core was in the kitchen tidy so she did eat it, not take it to mislead me.

An appetising aroma hit me when I opened the warming oven and I seriously wondered how she could possibly cook these meals and resist eating them because I would probably break into her house and steal them from her kitchen if she weren't here cooking them for me. They were worth risking a short jail term for breaking and entering and eating.

I took my plate into the bedroom, stripped off and ate in bed, and sure enough she woke and sat up beside me.

I told her the usual update, no change, and then got her chatting about how she had felt in her session with Emmett. She liked him a lot and preferred him to her own therapist, which was handy. Maybe she would start to see Forks as her home town again and come back and live here.

"What's this?" I asked, spearing a piece of food and offering it to her and she frowned but opened her mouth and ate it.

"Chicken. I used garlic and butter and ..."

I didn't really care what the recipe consisted of but I nodded and ate another piece myself, then offered her the next fork full.

Thus began my tactic to subtly make her eat and though she pulled back a little and shook her head sometimes, I kept talking and virtually forcing food into her mouth in a manner of two friends sharing the one meal and she was too polite to outright refuse whatever I sent her way.

When we were finished, and she had eaten more than half, I offered her a cup of tea and we sat there drinking silently, and I suddenly felt the words flow from my mouth unbidden.

"I'm totally scared out of my wits, Bella. They redid every test today and there's no physical reason Alice is still unconscious. That's a worry because, if it were a blood clot for instance, we could operate and remove it, but when there's nothing to fix, there's nothing we can do. It's up to Alice, and I don't know how to make her want to come back to us.

I'm beginning to doubt my own profession. It seems I haven't managed to help anyone I care about. I know I do help a lot of patients but what's the point, really, if I can't recognise a life threatening condition in my own wife, or cure my sister?"

"I guess it's like you said," she replied. "We can only be in control of so much and we don't get to choose which things they are. You saved plenty of people, I know. You help those you can. I seriously think this town would be a much lesser place without you and Carlisle. We are so lucky to have two such caring and dedicated doctors of your calibre. Dad was always on about how the doctors here were superior to those in most larger towns so you both seriously impressed him, and he was not a man to give praise lightly."

"Yeah, but there's another example. Charlie was brought into the ER on my shift, and I couldn't help him. It was too late."

"Oh no, are you telling me you aren't God, because I thought you were."

I had to conceded she was right.

I wasn't allowing her reluctance to eat to spiral out of control and into a serious eating disorder on my watch. I had some control over that, surely.

I wanted to know how much thinner she was now and short of secretly watching her in the shower, I had no idea how to do that.

We watched a dvd and she cuddled up beside me and occasionally rubbed her neck, so bingo, it hit me.

She apparently enjoyed my gentle hands touching her so I pulled a bottle of water based lotion from my bedside drawer and asked her to take off her nightdress.

"Why?" she asked, but the tone in her voice actually gave me a small thrill, because it wasn't a refusal, and she was already lifting it over her head before I even explained.

"Full body massage. You are tense and we need to fix that."

She smiled at that and stretched out face down on the bed and I started with her right foot and worked my way up one leg at a time, across her backside, still curvy, up her back and down each arm then worked on her neck where her muscles were the most tense.

She moaned in a way that was causing the obvious inevitable reaction in my boxers so I kept a pillow between us, and when I was finished with her neck, she immediately rolled over and waited for me to start on her front.

Hmm, where to begin?

It was a therapeutic massage, I had to test the waters and see what areas were off limits so I swept my hand across her pelvic region, hip to hip, then up her belly and worked up to under her breasts, which were still full and shapely. Her nipples had hardened which made for serious wood in my boxers. I touched the underside of her breasts and she still lay there, eyes closed, smiling, no indications I was crossing any lines, so I added more lotion and warmed it up by rubbing my hands together, and tentatively started caressing her left breast, swirling my fingers around its base in a circular motion and inwards to the center where her erect cherry red nipple sat.

I don't know if it was doing her any good but it was certainly enjoyable for me.

I moved on to her right breast and repeated the massage, then reluctantly went higher, breastbone, shoulders, and ended up at her throat. Then I touched her face, stroking her forehead then cheeks and without thought, leaned down and kissed her.

She responded, kissing me back in a relaxed lazy way and I snapped out of it and wrapped her up in a blanket and lay down beside her, pillow in place on my lower regions, and thought of dead puppies and naked Politicians and the unfortunate glimpse I had caught of my brother's naked ass on the live stream to Jasper's laptop.

And that did it.

Crisis averted, although I had a feeling 'those' dreams would be back tonight.

Surprisingly I slept like the dead and woke spooned around Bella's body. She was moving so I opened my eyes to see if she was descending into a night terror but it appeared to be the opposite.

Although asleep, she had one hand between her legs and was gyrating against it and I wasn't sure of what to do. Decency dictated I feign sleep or slip out of bed, but as I tried to back away, her eyes opened and I watched them widen in shock, reflected in the wall of mirror tiles.

She blushed the deepest red I had ever seen on her face and she looked completely mortified. As she started to panic I moved back behind her again her and slid my own hand over hers and started moving it, making hers keep rubbing against her flesh and she shut her eyes, and slid her own hand to the top of mine so I gently kept up the massage and admitted this was probably my fault anyway. Touching her everywhere but here, no doubt her body had responded like mine had. I lay my head down and kissed her neck softly and worked my hand until she fluttered against it and sighed with relief.

We lay there for a few long seconds, then I moved my fingers to her mound and rubbed it lightly, then took my hand back.

She rolled over and opened her eyes, and smiled bashfully.

"Well, it had to happen. Being in a bed with someone as hot and pretty as me, how could you not feel horny?" I joked lightly.

She laughed and slapped at me with my pillow then I jumped out of bed and offered her the first shower while I relieved my own seriously hard wood as I listened to her singing, and imagined what she looked like with warm water running down her body. I had memories of that night to use, so it wasn't long before I was biting my lip to prevent myself yelling her name as I let go.

I used my discarded T shirt to clean up with and rolled it, putting it in my dirty laundry basket under my other clothes, and pulled my boxers back up.

When she emerged from the bathroom all pink and soft and fragrant, wrapped in one of my big fluffy towels, I smiled and pushed past her and stepped into a stream of icy water until things calmed down again, then added some hot water and washed.

I really hadn't wanted to indulge in just sex with her but decency had demanded I diffuse the situation she was in and other than run, I really had no other options than to do what I did. And she felt so wonderful when she rocked against me and let me do that for her. I may have been forced into it but there was no way I hadn't enjoyed watching her face as she let go.

I considered it a compliment that she had trusted me to handle the situation. Let's face it, she was going to catch me with some serious morning wood any day now if we kept sharing a bed, and that was something I didn't want to put a stop to. It had been so long since I had a warm body beside mine in the hours of darkness, I couldn't voluntarily send her away. I had two guestrooms but they were unfurnished. Everyone I knew and cared about lived in Forks, I didn't have guests.

When I was dressed, I went to the kitchen. Bella was drying her hair with a hair dryer in the sitting room, and when she finished she came in to make her morning cup of tea so I turned to face her.

"If you are going to keep feeding me those delicious dinners you make, then we have to eat healthily for breakfast and lunch, so, oatmeal, eggs on toast, fresh fruit juice with the pulp left in. Sound good?"

She frowned a little then agreed and I served our breakfast and kept up a casual conversation while we ate. I slowed down my usual habit of inhaling the first meal of the day without tasting, and kept at her own pace. She was struggling but I distracted her with stories of some of Emmett's exploits and she laughed and persisted until she had finished the cereal and a slice of toast and an egg. Victory. I didn't show any reaction on my face as I handed her a banana and ate one myself and poured myself more juice, not pushing it by topping up her glass.

Once she was done, I stacked the dishwasher, then called the hospital.

No change. I told Carlisle I would be in soon, maybe an hour and he assured me that was fine.

"Okay, now we have to get some exercise seeing we sit around all day, so, got comfy shoes on? I'll show you the walking track I prefer. It meanders through the forest and we end up in the street your house is in before cutting back to this street. Come on, let's go spy on your tenants."

Bella slowed me down a lot from my usual pace but it didn't matter. She was outside, she was fed and walking and smiling and it was what she needed to get grounded again.

Emmett had only told me he thought she was over medicated and had started her on a less potent drug regime, so we all had to watch her closely and make sure it was still adequate for her needs.

She chatted happily as we walked and I pointed out who lived where now, seeing she had old school friends here still who had paired up and moved in together or married even, and she was surprised at some pairings and amused at others. I got to hear about how some of my patients had acted as teenagers, and it was rather insightful.

Tyler Crowley had always been a reckless driver and nothing had changed. Eric Yorkie still went surfing no matter how cold or even dangerous the surf was at La Push. Lauren Mallory still experimented with soft drugs and smoked way too much weed but it seemed she always had.

Bella stopped at her own house and stood there a little tearfully so I pointed out the grass was cut, the yard tidy, and the house looked cared for still.

"Do you think you will ever come back and live here?" I asked and she shrugged.

"I don't feel like I belong in Florida any more. I had such a clear vision of how my life would be there. Me working from my apartment, Jane helping me with the baby, Peter rushing about doing whatever I need to have done. I had refused any book signing tours this time because I figured I'd be pregnant and not up to them so I have nothing to go back to now. And I really don't want to have to face that nursery. It's beautiful, Rose did an amazing job but I don't need the emptiness slapping me in the face. Yet I couldn't dismantle it myself before I came here."

"Did you plan to buy a house so you'd have a yard and a dog and all the things kids want?" I asked, and she nodded.

"I was considering bringing the baby back here when it got to the stage where it walked and would need space outside. I was going to make sure you knew about her by then, and let you decide if you wanted her here near you or if you preferred we stayed in Florida. I wanted her to have a happy childhood and grow up in my old bedroom if you agreed."

"Of course I would have. My main problem with the whole thing, apart from the health thing, was not being in her life. Bella, was it a girl or do you just assume she was?"

"It was a girl. They did tests to see if I lost her because of some genetic problem but it was just bad luck. No cause was found."

"So, we lost our little Charlotte," I said quietly and took her hand in mine and squeezed it.

"I'm sorry I couldn't keep her safe," she whispered and I hugged her in close and kissed the top of her head.

"I wonder what the second chance baby will be? Another girl or a boy?" I said, releasing her and leading her along the shortcut back to my house.

She looked up at me mystified and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"The second chance baby?"

"Why not? Neither of us are getting any younger. We both want kids, we already know we can be friends and be there for one another, and we have both own houses here. Even if things don't work out how I hope, we can both live here in Forks and have her choose which home to live in when. We can share her."

"You think she would be a girl?" Bella asked. I shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. A baby is a baby, whatever gender it is will be great. I reserve the right to name it if it's a girl though. You can name the boys. Nothing gay though. I don't want my sons having names that get them beaten up in the playground so I claim veto power."

"So, basically, I can name them anything you approve of? So you are virtually choosing their names as well as the girls names? How is that fair?"

"I owe it to my sons to make sure they get proper masculine names. None of those names where you can't tell which gender they are, or these stupid modern made up names. No, good old fashioned traditional worked for me. Jack, James, Simon, you will have plenty of scope, just no Tarquins or Billy-Bob's or Drake's. Okay?"

"Um, sure. When are we having this second chance baby?

"As soon as you are fit and well and can handle another pregnancy. I'm thinking three to six months? There's no proven gap that is better than another after a miscarriage but it makes sense to get you into top physical condition, fattened up a bit, full of iron and folate and well rested. Make sense?"

"Sure," she said still shocked at the conversation.

"Bella, you'd still be happy to have a baby of mine, wouldn't you?"

"Sure. I'd love that," she agreed.

"Okay. It's a deal. We date and you have to move in with me properly so I can cook for you for a change and we both work towards our goal. To be fit and healthy before conception. Then when Carlisle gives us the green light, we will be forced to sleep together again, no matter how distasteful that may be...I mean, neither of us enjoyed it last time, right? Not one of the dozen times it happened that night?"

"I guess it was pretty horrible..I remember moaning about it a lot at the time."

"Yep, see, you are right. There was moaning on both sides."

"Yes, but Edward, if we have to do it again to get a baby, then we will just have to man up and do it. Okay?"

"I guess it's the only way so I for one are willing to take one for the team. I will sacrifice myself for the greater good."

"So, what's the plan?"

"I guess first thing is I have to stop smoking."

"You still smoke? I haven't seen you do that since I came here."

"I have been rather distracted which only proves I'm not addicted therefore can go cold turkey. No more smoking. Do you smoke?"

She shook her head.

"Drink? Are you a regular consumer of Southern Comfort?"

"No, I haven't tasted a drop since that night. Wait, could that have caused the baby to not implant properly?"

"I don't think so but we won't take any chances. No booze, and I assume no drugs? You don't use weed?"

"I did once in High School, but so did Alice and Rose. We all felt rather terrible so we didn't try it again."

"That's good. Nothing like a bad first experience to keep you off something for life."

"Actually if that were true, I would never have gotten pregnant."

"Your first experience of sex was bad?"

"Pitiful would be a better word. I never even enjoyed sex much until that night. You changed my mind."

"Good, I knew we were together for reason. I had to show you how good sex could be, you had to show me there was hope after Char. We have done each other some good. Now, are we telling or not? Is the second chance baby our secret?"

"I think so. No point telling Rose or Alice until it's conceived at least. And we need Alice on her feet fully recovered if she is Godmother as well as aunt."

"Right. So first we move you in with me, eat well, exercise, wake up Alice, have a baby. Right. That takes care of this next year. What about Rose? I can't see her taking the news Alice is Godmother lightly?"

"Joint Godmother, obviously. It goes without saying the second chance baby will need two."

"Of course, how silly of me."

We showered together, just to keep talking mind you, and went to the hospital to spend another day watching my silent sister and cheering up Jasper.


	6. Chapter 6

**w w w . ovguide **

**.com/tv/the_graham_norton_show dot htm**

**Series 9 Episode 13 (Season highlights clip show)**

**So worth watching, it's free, see how US celebs act on this Brit talkshow (has RPatz as a guest, Bradley Cooper, PDiddy, Reese, Lady Gaga, so many more, and it's hilarious).**

The One Night Stand

Chapter 6

EPOV

Emmett grabbed my arm as I entered the hospital corridor the next day and asked me to accompany him to his office. Bella went on to visit Alice and no doubt, Jasper so I told her I would find her soon, and followed my brother.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Yesterday Bella gave me permission to talk to you about her sessions and tell you anything I feel you need to know. Explain."

"Explain what?"

"Explain why my up tight, ultra conservative brother who always obeys society's rules and niceties, has agreed to father a child out of wedlock with a woman he hasn't even committed himself to, or fallen in love with."

"Oh, that."

"Yes, Edward, that. This plan sounds more like something I would come up with, to have a kid yet not have to settle down. You told her you are fine if you two live apart after it's born even?"

"Emmett, she is not dying on my watch. She's borderline anorexic. She wasn't eating. I could well imagine her just starving to death in front of us. She's deeply sad. I offered her a goal. A reward if you prefer. She has to get better, regain weight, eat properly, and get off the drugs over the next six months. If that doesn't happen, then no baby."

"That's kind of extreme. You couldn't have offered her a sports car? It worked for BioDad with Alice," he replied.

"Yeah, well, Bella could buy herself ten sports cars and there's nothing like that she wants or needs. She spends her income supporting orphans overseas. I can't buy her an orphanage full of abandoned kids. All she really wants in life is to have a baby but a very specific baby. Mine. I have no real idea why."

"Because you treat her like a human being apparently."

"I don't even get that. How can any man allowed the privilege of being in her bed, not treat her like a Princess? I don't get it," I cried.

"Edward, you are a gentleman from another time, most guys today take what they can get where they can get it and it's 'wham, bam, thank you Ma'am' and they move on to the next bed. It's just the way things are."

"Then it's not good enough."

"Maybe not but while girls allow that type of behaviour, men will keep doing it. Bottom line, we are lazy and lustful and if some girls gives it away with no strings, we are going to take it."

"Then girls are stupid."

"Yes they are. Mainly girls today are needy. They grow up without a father and just want some type of affection from any source, and sleeping with a guy is a few minutes of physical contact and she can pretend he likes her, and who knows, he might come back again. Or go home and get his white charger and come rescue her. They just need attention and if they lacked that from their parents...say a mother who walked out and left her daughter behind and rarely even called.."

"Like Renee?"

"Exactly like Renee. Do you know that, mentally, Bella considers herself an orphan? She truly thinks she has no family left since Charlie died."

"So she wants a baby to create her own family."

"And that's a solution of sorts. I get that. But why are YOU agreeing?"

"Because she is not dying on my watch. Because she needs something to look forward to. She was sad and lonely and now she is all full of plans and hope again. She ate three meals yesterday, she ate more breakfast than I did this morning."

"But you know you can't impregnate her until she is truly better?"

"Emmett, we are not having sex, she won't get pregnant until Carlisle gives us the word she is really fit and healthy again."

"And on that day, you become her sperm donor?"

I smiled and tapped my own forehead.

"No, Emmett. By then we will be a proper couple. This gives me six months to find a way to start a new life with Bella. I hope we are a proper couple by then. I hope we are forever. Then all I am doing is giving us a baby to complete our family, not fathering a random child."

"Do you intend marrying her?"

I felt the smile leave my face.

"You know I would give anything to be able to think I could do that. That I could finally let Charlotte go and move on. I still think of her as my wife. Until I can alter that, I cannot remarry."

"Then you need to tell Bella that because she thinks that is the ultimate goal. The baby AND the wedding."

"So I have something to work towards achieving myself."

"Just so long as you know that. Okay, we are done. What do you think of Rosalie?"

"I think you have finally met your match. Oh, does she have issues with abandonment too? Did her father leave when she was small? Is that why she slept around?"

"No, Edward. Rose just likes sex. She likes it like some people like exercise. Funny, isn't it, it's like I've met the female me."

I think he is spot on about that.

Jasper was quiet and barely responding to Bella's happy chatter and she reached over and took his hand as I walked in.

"Hey Jas, how are you feeling?" I asked, checking his chart.

"Kind of useless and losing hope my Alice will ever wake up and come back to me, if you want to know the truth. Isn't there anything you can do?"

"We are doing what we can but there's nothing fixable, Jasper. She has no medical problems any more, she just hasn't woken up. It could be some part of her brain was damaged but until she's awake, we can't tell."

"The specialist did more tests yesterday and I could tell he thinks it's hopeless. He was suggesting it is time to think about moving her to a hospice."

" We are nowhere near that point and anyway, that will never happen while Carlisle runs this place. We will never give up hope."

"But she's taking up a bed, surely money will come into it."

"Jasper, Carlisle has made a fortune over the years on the stock market and he pulls out when it peaks and invests the proceeds in a safer way so he will always be unspeakably rich. He could buy this hospital and he would, if that was what it took to keep her here. Masen is worth even more, money will never be an issue. Forget that, Alice will always have a safe place to live."

"If this is living," he sighed. "Will it get to the point where we may have to choose to let her go?"

"Never. Nobody else dies on my watch. I will not lose my sister."

Bella looked up at me and smiled.

"We have something really special Alice needs to be here to do, so she has to get better."

"So, you two are getting hitched. Congrats and all that but that's not the wedding foremost in my mind. I proposed to Alice just before we crashed and she accepted my proposal."

Bella blushed and looked away from me and I knew she knew at this point, I couldn't offer her that.

Until I found a way to truly let go and bury Char, my life was stuck on hold.

X~x~X

I didn't like the way things were going with Jasper. Bella was needing less and less drugs as the next weeks passed but he was taking them instead.

She was blossoming, he was deteriorating. And his leg was not improving at all.

I had called in the same bone specialist who had seen him twice before and we stood beside his bed, x-rays in hand and I avoided looking into my friend's eyes.

"Mr Whitlock, I'm afraid things are not looking so good, and we may be best just accepting you need more surgery and we will be pinning the bone. I know it sounds extreme but as the two ends have failed to knit, there's little choice. I will be placing a metal plate here, along the sides of both sections of your tibia and pulling the ends back into place. Then the screws go in and it's fixed. Like an internal brace. I anticipate a full recovery so I will check my schedule and see when we can fit this in. Good day."

I offered Bella a small smile and went out with him and we booked an OR for the next day.

"He's still receiving counselling?" the doctor asked and I nodded.

"It's complicated, his girlfriend who happens to be my younger sister has been in a coma for over three months now. He is less concerned about his own injuries than he is about her."

"I have never encountered a bone that refused to knit for emotional reasons, I hope we are not in for any surprises when we get in there. It happens sometimes, where the two ends heal over rather than rejoin but I don't like the look of this. It's no further forward than when I first saw it after the accident and all our efforts seem to have achieved nothing."

"Would you like to consult with his counsellor? Emmett has his rooms here in the hospital, I could send for him?"

"He wants to get better so he can go visit Alice but on the other hand, he doesn't want to fully recover and leave the hospital. He feels he would be abandoning Alice if that happened. He watches her on web cam and every day it's the same, no progress. It's very hard for him," Emmett explained."Even having to actually face her in the flesh is a problem. On the laptop, it's sort of safe and removed, once he sees her in front of him, it may just tear him apart. We have to be really careful how we handle this."

This still didn't explain how a bone hadn't knitted back together, his mind could not be controlling that.

The next day I admit I was worried and as we went into the OR, I hoped there would be no surprises. I didn't think any of us could cope with a single shred of more bad news. As it turned out, we didn't get tested. Jasper's operation went off flawlessly and now once the flesh healed, he would be able to begin physio and get out of his bed that was keeping him prisoner.

Bella was waiting as we emerged and I smiled at her worried little face.

"It went well. The ends had simply healed over and there was nothing sinister about it at all. They are pinned, and he will get better. He'll be as good as new in weeks," I promised her.

Jasper's parents were here whenever they could be, and both flew in from Boston regularly to see him so they were there today and I kissed Bella lightly on her forehead and left to speak to them in the Relative's Room.

Esme was sitting with them while their son was in surgery and it was smiles all round as I got to give good news for once.

Esme hugged both of Jas's parents and took them back to her house for lunch seeing Jas would be out of it and groggy when he woke and I showered and dressed and handed over to Carlisle as my shift ended.

"So, what are we doing this afternoon?" I asked Bella.

"I'm going to have my usual check-up with Carlisle, seeing I can't be your patient, then we are going for a picnic lunch. It's all packed."  
>"If I was your doctor, we couldn't ever play doctors and nurses, remember that," I joked.<p>

Bella threw me a look and I stopped smiling.

Uh oh, I may just have pushed a button I didn't want touched yet.

Although we still lived together in my house, nothing had changed. We shared my bed, but in a strictly chaste way and there had been no further instances of me touching her in any manner other than friendship.

We kissed freely, but not deeply.

We hugged and spooned in bed.

We did get along amazingly well, and we enjoyed one another's company but time was moving on and some day it would be time to make real progress.

I was all for that but Alice's condition, and Jasper's problems were top priority, these were troubled times. Those two were always my first concern. I guess I had put the relationship on hold by default.

And by the look of things, I was going to get called out on that!

X~x~X

Bella spread the picnic rug out on the ground in the meadow she had decided was the perfect place to have this conversation and she plated my lunch and her own and we ate in companionable silence. I was a little apprehensive but on the other hand, she looked happy and relaxed so maybe I was over reacting.

"Okay, what are we here to discuss?" I asked, not willing to assume anything. It may not even be what I think so I didn't want to start her off on that tangent unnecessarily.

"The tenants have left my house."

Okay, I had not expected that.

"I'm sure you can get more tenants. It's a nice house in a nice area. I know you aren't worried about the loss of income so what is it?"

"I don't know where we are going. You and I. We appear to be friends who share a bed and no more, still. Would you agree?"

"Bella, there's so much happening, with Alice and Jasper and work and everything..."

"I know. I appreciate that. What I need from you is a sign that you intend us being more one day soon. A gesture of intent."

"Like, what? A public declaration that I enjoy our dates and will take us to the next level soon? I do want that to happen, never doubt it."

"Sad as it is, Edward, Alice may remain like she is forever, or at least for a long time yet. I think it's unreasonable to put our lives on hold. "

"Oaky, I can understand that."

"And you said Jasper will be fine now he's had the surgery."

"True, I don't expect complications."

"So, there's no reason to keep me at arm's length. Are you going to let me in or not?"

"I am trying. It just takes time. Things will progress..."

"Well, my thoughts are, while you are making up your mind if and when you plan to make a move on me, that I should go live in my house."

"No," I growled." I couldn't sleep alone again. Please. We can move it up, we can..."

I wondered if I should go buy her one of those Promise rings that high school boys give their girls. Then it hit me. It did involve a ring.

I held up my left hand and slid the gold wedding ring off my finger and handed it to her.

"And you are saying?" she asked.

"I'm saying it's time to let go and no longer think of myself as married. I'm not Char's husband any more."

"And what does that make you?"

"Your boyfriend. Your lover. If that's what you want."

"Oh yes, it is what I want. Is it what you want?"

I looked at her, big brown eyes shining, red glints picked up by the sun in her long brown hair, lips slightly apart, full and red.

"This is what I want," I said, moving closer, stroking my hand down her arm, pulling her in for a kiss.

She kissed me lightly, as we always kissed then I deepened it and asked permission for my tongue to enter inside her mouth and she reacted by launching herself at me and pushing me to the ground on my back.

I rolled us and hovered over her and smiled.

"May I?" I asked.

"I wish you would," she replied and clothing suddenly flew everywhere as we tore at one another and I settled back above her, between her legs.

God yes, it was time.

She reached for her jeans and handed me a small silver packet and I laughed and shook my head.

"Thank God you are thinking because my brain appears to have lost all blood," I chuckled, pulling the latex on.

"Oh God," we both cried as I entered her and the buzz hit.

"Edward, this is just..."

"Bella, how amazing is.."

We both laughed and I started rocking inside her and let the electricity rock through us both. God knows what this is about, I never felt like this with Char, and I don't really understand it at all but maybe it means I am finally with the right girl. Maybe this is how you tell. Maybe this was Char sending me a sign that what I was doing was the right thing.

"Bellaaa," I cried out and reached to lift her closer as I pounded inside her and lost all sense of gentlemanly restraint. It wasn't soft or sweet or gentle, it was wild and out of control but she seemed to like it and her hands tore through my hair and down my back and settled on my ass which she seemed to be trying to pull inside her.

God yes, this was what life was about and I had been crazy not getting back here sooner.

My lips tore at hers and she gave as well as she got, and things got crazy.

No sooner was that condom filled than she was handing me another and rolling onto her hands and knees.

Oh yes, quiet and shy Bella seemed to have left the building, the girl whom I met in the bar was back and I just hoped I would be able to keep up with her.

X~x~X

I shivered and reached for the quilt and found nothing, so opened my eyes.

Shit, the sun was setting, and we were naked in the meadow and the temperature was starting to dip alarmingly.

"Bella, wake up. We have to get dressed and go home before we freeze."

She sat up and held her head.

"Get dressed, we have to go to the hospital, now."

"What's wrong?" I cried out in alarm. God, I must have hurt her. Slight bruises marred her fair skin but she seemed not to be bothered by them, and she stood and pulled her clothes on quickly.

"I know what Alice needs. I know why she hasn't woken up. Take me to her."

We abdaoned our picnic supplies and ran for the car.

"What is it?" I asked. "How do you know?"

"She spoke to me when I was asleep in the meadow. She thinks Jasper is dead."

"Why would she think that? Shit, I hope nothing's happened, Carlisle would have called me."

"No, she knows who has sat beside her and spoken to her. She can't understand the words we say but she has been waiting to hear Jasper's voice and so she assumes he is dead. She's been trying to decide whether she should go join him on the other side or come back to us. We have to take him to her. She has to know he is alive and waiting."

"Jasper can't be moved. It's vital his leg remains still for another day or so."

"Then we have to take Alice to him."

"How? She's unconscious."

I parked the car and Bella had her door open before I could get to it, and we ran inside.

"We can't put her in a wheelchair. Maybe I could carry her?"

"Or we could take her bed to his ward and let him touch her and talk to her."

"I don't know, she really probably shouldn't be moved."

"Fine, let her die. Then let him wake up and tell him she is gone and watch him kill himself."

"He would never do that."

"Edward, you understand depression, I understand depression. I had no reason to stick around until you gave me that hope of having the second chance baby. Alice and Jasper both need to know everything will be alright."

I disabled the alarms and freed Alice's tubes and we pushed the bed down the hallway until we reached the bones ward.

"Visitor for you, Jas," Bella said.

He turned to face her, his eyes merely polite, no life, until he saw the bed.

I manoeuvred it up to sit flush beside his.

"Alice! Is she better? Is she dying? What?"

"She's deciding, you need to talk and touch her and tell her to stay," Bella cried out.

Jasper reached across and tenderly stroked my sister's face.

"Ali, come back to me, I'm waiting for you to wake up."

Her face remained passive.

Jasper took her hand between his own and slowly Alice curled her fingers around his, interlacing them together.

Her eyes flickered and a small smile formed with her lips.

"Jas," she croaked quietly, and Bella did an Alice move and jumped up and down, clapping her hands.

"High five me, Edward!"

I connected Alice to a monitor and watched her heartbeat increase and return to normal. She opened her eyes and they locked on Jasper's.

"Hello baby. You don't know how long I've waited for you," Jasper said happily.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she whispered gruffly.

"Come on home, I'm going to do more than high five you, you little witch," I said to Bella and lifted her into a fireman's hold and headed for my car.

"My sister is conscious, she's in the bones ward. You might want to inform Carlisle," I said to the surprised nurse on duty, and she rushed off down the corridor.

"What's my reward then?" Bella asked over my shoulder.

"How was your check-up today?" I asked in reply.

"Great. Iron levels normal, weight exactly in the middle of average for my height."

"Then how about we make love without a condom?" I suggested.

"Really?"

"Really."


	7. Chapter 7

The One Night Stand

Chapter 7

EPOV

"I love you Rosie, you are my world now."

I stopped and listened unashamedly because those words, in fact no words remotely like them, have ever passed my brother's lips before. Is he scamming her? People do not meet and fall in love within three and a bit months. That's ridiculous.

When I met Char on my 20th birthday, sure, I was attracted to her. I liked the way she laughed, I liked her boldness and she was incredibly beautiful, but even so, I did not fall in love with her for almost three years and that seems like a reasonable time frame when you consider I had thought I would be with her forever.

You don't choose your life partner after three months, so what the heck is Emmett pulling?

He rounded the corner and stopped before walking straight into me.

"Edward. Eavesdroppers never hear well of themselves," he smirked.

"What are you doing? Rose is a lovely girl, I can't stand by and watch you carry out whatever con trick you are pulling on her."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"I heard you say you loved her. You have never loved anyone. And it's been three months...it has to be a lie."

"No, it doesn't. Sometimes you just know. I knew from maybe a week after we got together that I loved her and didn't want to even try to live without her."

"A week?" I all but screamed. "Now I know you are being insane. Love takes time, Emmett. Clearly you are mistaking lust and affection and probably you feel grateful for her being there for you when Alice was asleep...and she was wonderful, don't get me wrong. But love? You are the psychologist, you should know better."

"The heart knows what the heart knows, Edward. We don't all sit about for years and analyze every emotion and every word spoken and constantly assess where we are. That would be you."

"But it makes sense. I assumed I would only marry the once so I had to be very sure I was with the right girl. And three years of dating Charlotte proved I was. I can't imagine what would have happened had we gotten married after three months."

"Think about it. It would have been the same, just you would have gotten there sooner had you two made it permanent earlier than you did. Neither of you suddenly changed, you knew you were compatible, and loved one another.."

"I did not know I loved Char for years."

"Well, we did. She did. Do you seriously think she would have waited all that time had she not known that?"

"Really?"

"Really, Edward. You showed it in every look, every touch, every word you said about her. It was kind of like the way you love Bella now. We can all see it."

" Then there it is, proof you are wrong. I don't love Bella. I like her a whole lot, I admire her and respect her and enjoy being with her, and I want to have a baby with her, but love? I have no doubt I will love her one day."

"But not until you are happy with the time frame? You may lose her. Not all girls will sit around waiting to hear those words, brother."

"Bella understands. She knows how things were with Char and she accepts it takes time for a heart to change. I've let go now and started with a clean slate but it would be silly to write too much on that slate until we prove to be truly compatible in every way."

"So, if she likes her coffee black and you like cappuccino's, that sets you back a week?"

"You don't understand. You have never been in love."

"Well guess what brother, I am now. And sorry if it doesn't fit into your imagined schedule of when it should happen, because it already has. Maybe you need to consider opening your own mind and admitting you feel just as much for Bella already as you felt for Char."

I shook my head sadly. The man had it all wrong. You can't rush love.

"What's your plan, Edward?"

"I don't want this generally known but Bella and I are going to try to have a baby. Last night was the first time we made love without protection."

"And yesterday was the first time you resumed love making? I don't get it, that's like an instant upgrade."

"I thought it through. Bella is thirty. If she has a child now, let's say she will be thirty one when it's born. Then she may want a second child, so after a sensible age gap, that makes her thirty six when delivering the second infant. That kind of limits us to two children. She won't want to have a third approaching forty."

"Have you ever considered letting them turn up whenever they want to? Rose and I plan to have kids, in fact... No, you would not be ready to hear that. So, where does the wedding fit in, with these hectic six years of having two children?"

"I assume in three years time. Once we have established it is real love and not just affection and lust and neediness."

"Okay, well let's hope you bride to be sticks around that long and doesn't just grab the next man that falls in love with her."

"You are talking nonsense. Bella is as cautious as I am."

"And that would be proven by the fact she changed her mind and decided to risk pain and hurt by agreeing to get pregnant again already? Has it occurred to you she has just come to the conclusion it's worth the risk? She has always wanted a child. The first time it didn't work out but instead of going into a five year funk, she gathered her courage and said,'okay, we try again.' She is being brave, but she has a good chance of succeeding this time, and who knows, had she insisted on waiting for a 'sensible' time, like after the far distant wedding, she may well have left it too late. Don't leave things too late, bro."

"I have no intention of that."

"I'm going to visit Jasper and Alice. And look who's here, your potential wife in the far future.

Hey Bella, you look happy."

"Hey Emmett. How are they today?"

"Alice is chatting like she has to make up for the months of silence and Jasper is just so in love he is letting her and not even interrupting. Luckily she can talk and drink at the same time."

"Yeah, I know. I think she talk and multitask with any other activity."

"Oh thanks for that, now I'm picturing them having sex and Alice describing her wedding dress while he's trying to.."

"Emmett! And they are insane, don't think six months or whatever the time frame is with them, is sensible either. I wouldn't know how long it's been seeing nobody informed me when they started dating," I replied sourly.

"God, imagine that. Maybe she just wanted to avoid a lecture on all thing's timely," he answered rudely.

"So, are you here to visit Alice?" I asked Bella, seeing I had another five hours of my shift to go.

"Yes, and I have to go collect my assistant from the airport."

"SeaTac? You are driving three and half hours to collect her? She can't take a bus?" I asked. I don't want Bella out there on the road that long. It's too dangerous. Has she forgotten about Alice's accident already?

"He, actually, and I thought I would enjoy the scenery. Maybe stop along the way home. Maybe hike up Hurricane Ridge. We could always stay overnight at Lake Cresent Lodge in the Olympic National Park and drive back tomorrow."

"Bella, I assumed we would be...continuing with our project tonight? It makes sense to try frequently at this point in time, when your body is ready to..."

"Ovulate? I ovulate every month, there's no hurry. It's not like we have to factor in timing around a wedding or anything. Peter wants to see if he likes the area, he may move here permanently. I'm thinking he could live in my house and we could work on the cookery book together. I could change Charlie's bedroom into a study and give Peter my old room."

I bristled at the thought of another man sleeping in her bed, even if she wasn't in it at the time. And she didn't find it essential to make love tonight at the optimal peak of her fertility?

"Relax, Edward. Peter's a fantastic driver, he'll take the wheel for the trip home. I just need to peek in on Alice, then I'll go. See you tomorrow."

Well, that was rather insensitive and I can't imagine this Peter can handle a car better than I can. And she never let's anyone but me drive her new BMW sportscar so that's unsettling.

"Oh, if a guy named Jacob Black calls, tell him I will be back for his interview tomorrow."

"Why are you interviewing him?" I asked.

"Jane has quit, she didn't like the long distance thing, too hard to collaborate, so I'm looking for some to fill her shoes. Jacob Black is an old family friend of sorts, I haven't seen him for years. Be nice to him if he comes looking for me, he said he might see if I wanted to go for coffee with him today and I can't get through on his cell. I think the reception is scrappy where he lives."

"And how will I recognise him?" I asked her crossly. I don't see why she can't just replace her staff with a couple of women. They are probably more emotionally suited to writing and cooking.

"Okay, last time I saw Jake he was tall but gangly, skinny as, kind of young looking for his age, and was trying to grow his hair long. Not very successfully. So, I guess not so well built guy with possibly long black hair. I'm sure he'll introduce himself."

"Enjoy your trip. I am looking forward to meeting Peter," I said as I walked with Bella towards the room we had moved Jasper and Alice into so they could stay together as they healed. It was partly true, I would be assessing this Peter carefully and making sure he had no unwelcome designs on my Bella. She is taken and he needs to know that.

My pager shrieked.

"Emergency , sorry, see you tomorrow then." I quickly kissed her forehead and ran for the ER.

BPOV

Alice looked amazing. Her eyes were bright and she was indeed talking non stop but she actually paused when she saw me at the door.

"Bella! My God, you look good, Girl. What have you been eating, you're like...healthy now. You have a little color on your cheeks even."

"Thank you my ever subtle Alice. I have been eating properly and working out and running."

"Running? Bella Swan runs now? Okay, so I woke up in an alternate universe."

"I'm...sharing a house with your brother."

"Well I assume that would be Edward because I know Emmett is loved up with Rose. So, sharing a house? You didn't say 'living together'? Why not?"

"Alice, you have missed a lot. It's complicated."

"Everything involving Edward always is. Are you two like...God, let's see, I've been out of it for twelve weeks...so, are you two holding hands yet? Edward takes his time, you must be going nuts."

"Actually he is attempting to impregnate me."

"You two are married? No, that would never happen, not in three months. It was three months, right, Jas? You didn't lie about how long I was out to save me a freakout? If these two are married and having a baby, it must have been three to five years."

"It was three months. Three months of Hell and pure agony waiting for you to wake up," Jasper assured her.

"So, in this alternate universe, my brother actually acts on impulse?"

"He has carefully considered everything and thinks now is a good time, considering my advanced age of thirty."

"But you aren't married? He must be on drugs to even consider this plan."

"He has told me twenty five is actually optimal for a first pregnancy so he can't in all conscience make me wait seeing we are five years behind already."

"Oh, that sounds credible. Phew, I was starting to think my brain was damaged after all."

"It's so good to hear your voice again. I bet you had a stream of visitors all night."

"Just Carlisle and Mom and Rose and Emm. I was waiting for you to show up. Edward told me you came here to Forks as soon as you heard. Thanks for that. I do remember listening to you talk to me but I can't remember what you said. But anyway, thanks. How long are you staying?"

I shrugged.

"Maybe forever, maybe for the foreseeable future. Depends if Edward and I conceive this baby and I don't lose it like the first one."

"What? Wait, you two already tried once before? How can this be?" she sighed, shaking her head.

"I was pregnant from that night...at the club...you remember?"

"Bella Swan, you did steal Edward's sperm!"

"I did. But I paid the price. I miscarried at ten weeks."

"And you didn't tell me you were pregnant why?"

"You were not so happy with me at the time. I was going to tell you and Esme and everyone who needed to know but I lost it, and then you..."

"Went into a coma. How foolish of me. I missed so much. And Emmett and Rose are engaged? How did that happen? I go to sleep and they have never even spoken to one another and I wake up and she's going to be my sister?"

"I guess Emmett let's his heart rule his head."

"Thank God one brother does. So, you and Edward plan to marry?"

I shrugged again.

"He hasn't asked me. He agreed to us co-parenting, and wants me to live here in Forks and at the moment he seems to want me to stay in his house with him, but I am making no assumptions."

"Do you love him? Bella Swan, you love my brother!"

"I do, I admit that but don't tell him, that's not allowed for another twenty nine months or something."

"Okay, now I know I'm back in the real world. You scared me, I thought at the very least Edward had been taken over by a pod person. At least we can depend on him to be a tortoise and maybe by the time your kid's ready to get married, he will be too. Double wedding, how cool."

I growled. "Not funny, Alice."

"So, are you having lunch with us? Mom's cooking. Soup for me, or jello or whatever. Something nice for the rest of you. Spaghetti marinara seeing I hate it anyway. Edward's eating with us and he assumed you would be as well."

"No, I'm off to Seattle but I'll be back tomorrow. Pete's coming to stay for a while. He may even relocate if he likes Forks."

"Is Jane coming too?"

"No, she bailed. I mucked her about too much after the last book and she needed a more consistent workload."

"Wow, Bella Swan runs and doesn't work 24/7. This will take some getting used to. Bring Peter in to visit me. I like him."

"Sure, no problem. Be safe and get better. See you, Jasper."

"You take care, Little Lady and we will talk tomorrow."

I handed over the container of applecake and blueberry muffins and kissed them both before I left.

In the hallway I heard Emmett's voice boom.

"I smell Bella food. Keep me some. Alice, you are recovering, you should be on chicken broth. I want your share of the goodies."

The drive to Seattle was uneventful and Peter looked good, happy to see me, and we walked around the city for a while before heading back towards Forks. He was easy with whatever I wanted to do. He loved my new car and keenly took the wheel, and we decided to just see how we felt along the way, whether to break the journey or not.

EPOV

The first thing I noticed at lunch was that the entire family except for my Bella was in the room, and Esme was handing around plates of food. No offence to my mother, but Bella's cuisine eclipsed hers hands down. I accepted the plate and ate heartily enough not to raise suspicions my palate had switched teams, and just enjoyed looking at my sister, as she chatted non stop as she always had before.

"Bella won't be here after all. She's collecting Pete from the airport," Alice informed us all.

"That's Bella's assistant, isn't it?" Esme said. "Is he thinking of moving here?"

"I can't imagine a native of Florida would adapt very easily to the rainy climate here," Carlisle added.

"But it's changed. It's been so different lately. In fact, the past three months have been so warm and sunny," I pointed out.

Alice looked surprised. Everyone else exchanged knowing looks and smiles.

"What? I'm just stating a fact. It's been beautiful weather since Bella moved here."

"Yes, it's only rained twenty nine days per month," Carlisle stated. Jasper and Emmett grinned. Rose smiled like I'd said something meaningful.

"That can't be right. I hate the gloomy wet weather and it's been different lately. Much warmer, much more sun. You have all been too concerned about Alice to notice, is all."

I frowned at their smirking faces. I was being indulged, but had no idea what about, or why. It had been amazing weather since she came. That was simply a fact.

Then I noticed the ring on Rosalie's hand.

"You two are engaged?" I said in a voice tinged in horror. They were moving much too quickly.

"Thanks for your congratulations," Emmett replied dryly.

"So, it will be a really long engagement," I stated and comforted myself. They were not schoolkids, they had been around long enough to know, all good things were worth waiting for.

"Actually Rosie wants to get hitched before she's showing."

"Showing what? You mean.."

That explained it. He'd knocked her up and some men feel obliged to marry the girl in those circumstances. I wasn't one of them, surprisingly, because it seemed to me, rushing into both unplanned parenthood and marriage was inadvisable and doomed to almost certain failure.

"I'm so happy for you both," said my mother inappropriately, I thought. Encouraging such behaviour.

"When you know, you know. No point dragging our feet. We plan on having ten children so it made sense to make a start," my brother stated.

Rose slapped at him, and I was glad she had more sense.

"Ten kids, I think not. Maybe five," she answered. I felt a little faint.

"I should go...check on...a patient," I said lamely and excused myself. Was everyone nuts?

"Dr Cullen, there's a _man _ here looking for Bella. He's at reception." She seemed rather breathless and red in the face. I must check her blood pressure. Oh, this would be the scrawny Jake boy.

I walked to the desk and looked around. Nobody was in sight except a Quileute man with more muscles than Emmett, so clearly not Jacob Black. His Tshirt was far too tight, he was clearly showboating, and his hair was rather amazing. I have to admit I was impressed with the thick black ponytail down past his ass. It must have taken him years to grow that and it was so shiny and luxuriant.

"Dr Edward Cullen?" the man asked. I turned and looked more closely, but I definitely didn't know him

"I'm looking for Isabella Swan. She said we might grab a coffee together and check one another out, see if we are compatible."

"Compatible?" I bristled.

"To work together. Is she here?"

"No, she had to go to Seattle but she left you a message.. the interview is still on for tomorrow at whatever time you agreed on."

"Oh , cool. So, is she as sexy as she looks on her book covers? I haven't seen her for years. We used to make sand castles together. Our Dads..."

"Quite. Yes, she is as sexy as you think, and she is also my fiancee," I informed him.

"Oh, right, sorry. She didn't mention she was engaged when I spoke to her," he said a tad suspiciously, I thought. Like maybe I was lying. Or exaggerating our relationship.

"Oh be assured, she is mine," I stated firmly.


	8. Chapter 8

**Anyone looking to donate to a great charity:****The Give Ability store at Westfield Doncaster will open from 1:30 pm, Tuesday July 26 until Sunday, July 31, during centre opening hours. Visit: .au**

Sami Lukis, TV and radio personality

What are you donating? I have donated a gorgeous Eileen Kirby ''High Society'' black evening frock with bead trim.

How long have you had the dress? I wore it once, when I hosted the Australian Red Carpet Premiere of the movie Water for Elephants in Sydney. I interviewed Hollywood superstars Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon while wearing this frock. Robert actually gave me a massive hug when I met him, so I actually think there is still a slight scent of ''Eau-de-R-Patz'' on the frock!

The One Night Stand

Chapter 8

EPOV

"Edward, what on Earth are you doing?" my mother called out as I emptied the contents of yet another drawer onto the floor in my old bedroom.

"I have to find Nanna's engagement ring. I need to see Bella and propose before she has her meeting today."

"Edward Anthony Masen Cullen, what's this all about? You had no intention of proposing yesterday. You told Emmett off about doing just that with Rose. What's going on?"

"It's just all these men coming out of the woodwork lusting after my Bella. She might forget who loves her the most and go on a date with one of them. I need her to know she is mine."

"Did my son just say 'love'? I think I'm more surprised to hear that coming out of your mouth than I was hearing it come out of Emmett's. I'm glad you realised you do love Bella already."

"Did I say 'love'?" I asked her, seriously.

"You did."

"Mom, is it possible? Can it happen that fast?"

"Of course it can, Edward. And in case you are worried, Bella loves you already too, so you have nothing to worry about."

"You think she will say 'yes' ?" I checked.

"I'm sure she will. Who could resist you, my dear son. She's a lucky girl. Char would be proud of you. You've really changed since you met Bella. I still can't believe one of my sons is marrying one of my favorite authors. She writes such...lovely... stories."

"Are they all romantic and girlie?"

"Yes, sure. Girlie. No man should read them, they are too...girlie."

She seemed rather strange. I made up my mind to buy a couple of Bella's novels and read them myself. Strangely she had no copies in my house. I guess it's just a thing, like actors who never watch their own movies.

"Damn, I really need to find this ring," I stated.

"Oh Edward, think back. When did you last have the ring? Were you going to give it to Charlotte?"

"No, I never considered giving it to her. I don't know why, come to think of it. It just never occurred to me. I bought her that modern setting with the big diamond. But I put Nan's ring into a jewellery shop to have it cleaned once. In Boston. I don't know if I ever picked it up. I can't remember going back to that store."

"Well it's been a very long time, maybe you need to let it go."

"Mom, what am I going to do? I need that ring for Bella."

"Go buy a new ring. I'm sure she will be happy with whatever you choose."

"But I need Bella to wear that ring. It would suit her and Nanna wanted me to pass it on as a legacy for the girl I chose to be my wife forever. It's important. How can I find out the name of that jeweller?"

"Masen has that friend who is a jeweller. Did you go to him? Isn't he named Tom?"

"Oh yes, Diamond Tom's. Thank you, Mother."

I did an Internet search and found the store. Tom himself answered and immediately remembered but he also recalled my own BioDad had collected the ring after it had been cleaned.

"Damn, is Masen still abroad? Still incommunicado?"

"No, I talked to him last night. He's coming to see Alice next week. Ask him to bring it then."

"I need it today. Maybe I could fly to Boston..."

"And be back before Bella and Peter get here? I don't think so. Call Masen and ask him to

have it sent by courier, it could be here tomorrow."

I did as she suggested. That didn't solve anything though. Maybe I could propose without the ring and promise to give it to her in the morning? Was that even acceptable?

Mother insisted it was fine so I headed off to my house to await Bella's return and rehearse my speech. I wished now I had already told her I loved her so it wouldn't be such a shock, the poor woman had no idea.

Her car was in the driveway as was an old restored VW Rabbit. The workmanship caused me to pause and run a hand over the bonnet with admiration for the attention to detail. It looked factory fresh new.

"Well Hello, my fiance," Bella said as I hurried inside.

"Um, hello. I can explain."

"What's to explain? You told a perfect stranger before you even asked me. I'm not all that surprised really, Edward. We will talk. Later." She led us into the sitting room where Jacob Black stood.

I shook hands with the rather stunning man and hurried off to get changed for my shift.

I had no choice but to leave them alone together and if she employed him, then they would be together many hours unchaperoned as it was.

Another man was in my sitting room as well when I walked back out.

"Edward, this is Peter."

Fuck me, doesn't the woman know any average men? Any plain or even ugly males? It's ridiculous. Peter is incredibly blond, platinum haired. His eyes are the prettiest blue and very attractive as is his whole face. He is tall, taller than me even, and built rather well, almost as well as Jake. And Emmett. She's going to notice than I am the least built of any man she knows soon. I feel inadequate and outshone but walked across the room and shook hands with Peter.

"Edward is my fiance," she said cheekily. "We are getting married next month so we have so much to organize."

I paled and took my leave. I couldn't ascertain if she was serious or merely teaching me a lesson.

Emmett was waiting when I got to the hospital.

"Edward, really, you are rushing into this marriage, aren't you? You know I have to advise you that it takes three years to know if you are in love. You are being far too hasty. So impetuous but hasn't that always been your failing?" he joked sarcastically.

"You can laugh but fuck, Emmett. What if she makes me go through with it?"

"That would be so terrible Imagine, two thirty year olds, madly in love, getting hitched. It's a tragedy all right."

I thought about it all shift, and there were no new admissions to even interrupt my thoughts. In the end I went to talk to Jasper and Alice, and hoped they would be a little sympathetic.

"Triple wedding, split the costs, do you agree, Edward?" Alice said as I walked in.

I walked out again and drove to town to buy the books still available in our small bookstore. Then I headed to the meadow Bella and I had made love in. It bore a large For Sale sign and an agent's number. I pulled out my cell and made an offer that was accepted.

If I'm getting married we need to have a home of our own, all new and fresh and just ours.

Laying in the wild flowers that abounded there, I thought about my life and what I really wanted, all bullshit aside.

I wanted Bella.

I want to hold her and kiss her and have her with me forever.

I have to acknowledge Emmett is right, finally, for once.

The heart knows what it knows.

Does she know? She's a smart girl, smarter than me. Maybe she knew.

The sun was shining softly and I went back to the car and got out the picnic blanket from the trunk and one of her novels and lay myself down to read it.

It seemed okay, just the typical romantic love story about lovers who met, parted, found each other again. Typical storyline.

Their reunion sounded rather...my God. Bella wrote this? I read on and felt myself blush and stiffen inside my jeans. My God, the woman knew about THAT type of sex? I was transfixed, needing to read more. Damn, they were fighting, she was leaving.

I flicked through and skimmed until they met accidentally one night at a party and found one another in the bathroom. Really, you can balance on a vanity basin and do that? I was rather thrown by the words she used to describe the activities and almost reached to undo my pants.

Actually, Bella had probably ovulated.

I abandoned another blanket in the meadow and headed home.

All foreign cars were gone and Bella looked up as she sat reading on the sofa.

I grabbed her as she started to apologise for her earlier joking behaviour.

"Bathroom, now," I choked and pulled her down the hallway, unzipping my jeans as we went..

X~x~X

BPOV

Well that scenario was familiar, I had anticipated Edward's every move, it was almost like he was re-enacting the sex scene in the bathroom from one of my earlier novels. He would never read books like that, surely?

Unbeknowst to him, I had a new novel half written and he had inspired many of the sex scenes. I even gave the hero a meadow of his own. And he met his true love in a dark, smoky club when their eyes met across the crowded room, then she watched him in the mirror. Sometimes coming up with a storyline can be so easy.  
>That sent me thinking. It was of no use to me if Edward was going to just make love according to my own past stories, we needed to do new things and be adventurous so I could add them to my new book. Despite this cookery book, I still had so many romantic stories in my head that needed to be written.<p>

Always a happy ever after was my rule. Too many real life relationships end badly, we need to read about the possibilities of another way a new relationship could end.

When my readers meet their own Edward.

I just hope theirs are a little more aware of their feelings.

When we had done with the rather uncomfortable sex in the bathroom, which I took note and decided to keep future story scenarios in a softer setting, he had washed us both in the shower, then told me to stay here in the bedroom until he cooked us a romantic meal as he had something to tell me and he feared it was going to be rather unexpected.

With any other guy, I would be thinking he was about to confess to an affair or a stray child, with Edward I suspect he has finally realised what we all know. I love the man madly, but he can be so innocent and unaware.

I hastily wrote a few notes for my story then slipped on a bathrobe and answered his call for me to come to the table.

The room was dimly lit with only candles providing our light source, and a delicious aroma filled the air.

"My Bella," he said, holding my chair and seating me.

"Wine? Alcohol free, of course."

"Thank you."

He plated our meals and we sat there, the tension in the air palpable.

"This smells wonderful, " I said, lifting my fork. It tasted out of this world. The man can cook as well as he...does other things.

He followed my lead but where I was eating daintily, he was inhaling the meal as if it was something to get done as soon as possible. He was is agony, so I lay my silverware down when he finished.

"Bella, I have to tell you something. I know you will think it's much too soon and can't be real, but I love you. I know, it makes no sense, it's not logical and I can't explain how it happened so fast. I hope I haven't shocked you too much."

I bit my lip so I wouldn't laugh and tried to react like this was news.

"Really, Edward. How amazing. I think I've come to the same conclusion myself. I love you too."

"My God. That changes things. Maybe we should do something to celebrate this unexpected development."

Then there he was, on one knee, taking my hand and slipping a blue plastic kiddy ring on my finger.

"Isabella, I promise to love you for forever. Would you do me the ultimate honor and agree to be my wife?"

"Yes, I would love to."

He looked a little surprised but he rallied.

"Obviously this is not the ring. It's coming by courier, should be here tomorrow. I'm sorry about that. I just couldn't wait. Once it hit me, it was like so important to let you in on it."

"It was a wonderful surprise, Edward. So unexpected."

"Isn't it though? It just goes against everything I've always believed."

"I guess the heart knows what it knows."

"Emmett said that. It must be true. Now I have to reconsider the relationships between Emmett and Rose, and Jasper and Alice, and admit that they too, could be genuine. Maybe we are not the only ones to feel this way so quickly."

"You never know."

"Bella, I kind of hope we didn't conceive our child in the bathroom, it's hardly a romantic start for her."

"I'll never tell if you don't."

"Maybe we could go to our meadow and try to begin her there. I think it would be a lot more meaningful."

"Our meadow? Someone owns that land, Edward. Strictly speaking we will have to tell her she was conceived while we were trespassing."

"I actually bought it today, for us. I'm hoping you will want us to build a house there. One that reflects us both and how we feel about being together and raising a family."

"Edward, stop talking now. I'm writing a new novel and I need some material for the sex scenes."

"Oh my Bella, let's go to bed and be amazing, then."

He was. I didn't take notes but in the morning every move replayed in my head and I ultimately decided I couldn't share it. It was too personal, too precious, to us.

X~x~X

Jacob Black returned the next morning after Edward went on shift, and Peter joined us for coffee and cake.

"Well, how did we do? Did we press his buttons?" Peter asked.

"You two did an amazing job. Lookie," I said, holding up my third finger with it's plastic ring.

"My, the man spared no expense," Jake laughed.

"So, he did propose then," Peter checked.

"He did. You were right. I owe you big."

"I told you all the man needed was the threat of a few new bulls sniffing around the cow paddock."

"Thanks Peter, that's a lovely image."

"So, Bella, my sweet friend, what are you going to say when Edward asks why you interviewed a mechanic for a position as a collaborator on your cookery book? You do know all I know about cooking starts and ends with 'Place in microwave for five minutes on High.' He may notice the grease on my overalls if he visits my workplace."

"Jakey, my love, I have no doubt one day he will work it out but meanwhile, what's happening? Pete, any interest in staying in town? Would you consider living here?"

"I doubt it," laughed Jake. "He had no luck last night. There's just no way he wants to be the 'only gay in the village'. Though I hear there's a boys only nightclub starting up in Port Angeles soon. Testing the waters, you could stick around and see if it could become your happy hunting ground."

"Cheers, Jake, maybe I will do that. Now, are we writing a cookery book or not?"

"I've kind of lost interest," I sighed, and admired my twenty five cent engagement ring.


	9. Chapter 9

**If this is crap, blame it on the fever I'm currently suffering. Bloody flu. Unedited.**

The One Night Stand

Chapter 9

EPOV

The arrival of the parcel from the courier had me smiling as I did my rounds and I left the package in Alice's room to collect and take home later. Of course she opened it and had my rring on her own finger when I finished my shift.  
>"Get it off, nobody can wear that apart from Bella," I growled and slid it roughly off her finger. It was even more beautiful than I had remembered and even though old fashioned, it had a charm of it's own with it's simplicity and prettiness.<p>

"I don't know why Nanna gave that to you. Emmett is the eldest and I am the only girl, why did she give it to you?" she whined.

"Maybe because she loved me the most," I suggested, rubbing the ring on my shirt. Damn sister had no right to open anything addressed to me. "Shouldn't you be in your own bed? It's essential Jasper's leg doesn't get knocked at all and I can't imagine you being in his bed is very restful. Don't go trying to do anything, will you?"

"Ooops, sorry," she said and I glared and checked his wound. Actually he was healing up nicely so my sister must have shown some unusual restraint and been gentle with him. Just trying to imagine how they had managed any form of sexual games distracted me for a moment.

The man was practically manacled to the bed and couldn't really manipulate his own body about, let alone hers.

Bella came in with her usual baked treats and I grabbed a couple of muffins before she handed them over. Jasper closed his eyes and sunk his teeth into one with a lemon center and moaned out loud.

"Oh my God, you have to get married today, before she realizes how much better she could do."

"Like Peter?" Alice snickered and all three started howling with laughter.

"He isn't obviously gay, how the hell would I even know how to tell?" I asked crossly. "Anyway Jacob is straight and he definitely wants you," I growled.

"Oh Bella wouldn't go back there for another go, that was all over ages ago," Alice laughed and

I froze.

"I thought you said you hadn't seen Jake since he was a skinny assed kid?"

"I may have used a little artistic licence. He once was a skinny kid, that part was true."

"Edward doesn't know?" Alice asked, shocked.

"What don't I know?" I asked, frowning.

"They were a couple. They lived together for a while."

I guess I had never asked, and Bella had never actually mentioned any specific earlier relationships. But Rose said she only dated losers. Jake seemed like a nice guy, even if he had been a part of the scam. I didn't resent what she had done to make me wake up and declare what was in my heart anyway, it had to be said and her little charade had simply finally made things clear in my head. God knows if I would have stuck to the three year test unless that had happened.

"You lived with him?" I questioned. Bella shrugged.

"We were together until I started making more money than he could ever hope to. He couldn't cope with that and he hated me going on book tours and doing interviews overseas and all over the country. I tend to be away a lot. It's not just writing when you are a successful author, it's appearances and workshops and conventions. I'm probably only home about six months of the year. Jane's always worked it so I did the first half of the year at home writing and the second six months travelling. That way people buy my books as Christmas gifts, stocking fillers, office Secret Santa presents."

"We should go home, my shift is over now anyway," I said, checking my pocket for the ring case containing my Nanna's ring.

Bella had come in her own car so we both drove home separately and I tried to make the things I needed to say assemble in my brain on the trip.

"Bella, you can't be away that much once you have the baby," I stated."That's no way to raise a child, being away from him or her that often."

"I would hire a nanny and take the baby with me," she answered, looking surprised I hadn't realized." And I have Peter, he is great with kids. He will always be whatever I need him to be. He has babysat many times. Jane has three kids under five, he has had loads of experience changing diapers. I would have the baby in his care days and a nanny for the evenings while he escorts me to all the events I have to appear at. Babies are adaptable, Edward."

"But I'm not. I want a full time wife who lives in my house all year round. And I don't want to miss out on my child's life. That's hardly fair."

"God, this is why I wanted to do it alone," she answered. "I knew I would never find a partner willing to agree to my lifestyle. There are a lot of books published every year, I have to keep in touch with my readers to keep them buying what I write. My stories are not unique, there's plenty of competition to be the popular one on the Top Ten Lists. It takes work, more work than the writing."

"Then we have a problem."

"I guess we do," she agreed. "I don't see a way to compromise either. I can't not travel."

"What did you plan to do once ...Charlotte...was school age?" I asked her seriously, pain hitting me as I said her name. It was pain for the loss of my child, not my first wife. Even the name Charlotte had new meaning, I always thought of the One Chance baby before adjusting to thinking of my first wife if that was who was being discussed.

"I hadn't come to any firm conclusions, I had five years to work that out. I guess I figured those would be your six months to have her, while I was away, if you wanted equal custody."

"You've never seen us a serious normal couple, have you?" I asked her.

"If you mean, you being the wage earner and me sitting at home washing the dishes and playing housewife, then I guess not."

"I never imagined you would want to leave me for half the year after we were married," I admitted.

"You could come with me," she suggested.

"So, for us to be married, I have to have half a career? It would be pretty much impossible for Carlisle to keep my job open for me six months at a time. No other doctor would want to be half employed."

"Then maybe we need to consider doing this the original way. Me living at my house, you living here. Us sharing custody."

"So, there is no 'us', not really? What was this all about then? Why did you want me to propose?"

"Because I love you and I want a family. A proper family but clearly that isn't possible."

"Your life is what makes it impossible, not mine. It seems reasonable to me to expect to share a house with your wife and child all year round. It seems to me if you wanted us to get married, you would be the one changing things."

"You are right, Edward. This isn't going to work, is it?" she said sadly. She struggled to remove the plastic ring from her finger and eventually handed it to me. "I'll go and stay at my house. Peter has Charlie's bedroom so I guess I've come full circle. Back where I started."

"I knew we should have spent more time together, getting to know one another's hopes and dreams and expectations. It takes time, you can't just rush into marriage," I said but felt no victory in being right.

"Stay tonight," I asked her quietly. I was in no way ready to let her walk away. I stood in front of her and put my hands on her shoulders and kissed her tenderly, hoping against hope she would somehow find my love enough to change her mind and keep her here. She leaned in so our bodies were flush against one another and I stroked her back, and ran my hand through her long brown hair, wanting to imprint these memories on my mind.

Something to look back on.

Memories of the short time Bella Swan was mine.

The money thing didn't bother me, I didn't judge any man's worth by his bank balance or his earning capacity and the fact she earned more than I did was irrelevant. For me it was solely the absence I couldn't abide.

She stayed and I guess we both knew it was futile, and I saw her flinch when she had aroused me and invited me inside her warm body one last time, and I paused to pull on a condom. There was not going to be a baby to be abandoned half the year, I could never participate in fathering a child to give it that ping pong lifestyle.

We made love quietly, sadly, both afraid to let it end, and she didn't even try to let me bring her over with me, she just cried into my neck as I emptied into the latex barrier between us.

When I woke up my bed was empty and everything she had brought here was gone. We still saw one another at the hospital but Alice was improving rapidly and once Jasper's wound healed, and they were both discharged, she no longer visited my workplace.

My family were all supportive of me which was a surprise as they had all been so invested in the idea of Bella and I marrying, so I guess they understood there were no words, no magical wand that could morph us into what we each needed the other to be to make our puzzle pieces fit together. Bella came to see me only once, knocking on my front door late one night, thrusting a negative pregnancy test stick into my hands and crying as she repeated over and over ,"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," though whether she was sorry there was no second chance baby or sorry there was no us, I wasn't entirely sure. She let me pull her into my arms and hold her one last time, and inevitably we ended up together in my bed, but just to have that one last night in each other's arms.

She was gone by morning, I didn't hear her go but the buzz stopped and I tossed restlessly, half awake until realizing what had happened, then I lay with my hand on the warm area of my bed where she had lain, and just missed her.

I still ran past her house, I didn't see any reason to change the routine I had begun long before she entered my life and soon it became obvious nobody lived here any more. A lawn mowing service were keeping the yard clean and the curtains were always closed. It had the sad look of a house in mourning, no longer needed to provide shelter and protection to it's owner.

Weeks passed and even Alice stopped mentioning her name and I waited for everything to go back to how it had been before she burst into my life in that bar.

The problem was, everyone had changed and there was no going back. Emmett and Rose were a proper couple. Their wedding was to happen first, Alice needed more time to set up her extravaganza.

I was to be Emmett's Best Man but I was sure Bella would attend and she did, arriving just as the bride started her walk down the aisle. My eyes were on the girl slipping quietly into the back row of the church, instead of on the bride, and I longed to speak to her at the reception.

Everyone else seemed to have the same idea and she was passed from group to group, being hugged and kissed and welcomed back by her friends and my family. Esme clutched on to her like she would never see her again.

I stood back and bode my time, drinking champagne and leaning against the wall, just watching her and now and again her eyes flicked to catch mine and she smiled and I smiled back.

I was refilling my own glass at the bar when she walked up behind me.

"Hitting the bottle, Edward?" she asked me, and I turned to her and grinned.

"It's all I have now, my friend the bottle. I would never hit it, I'm not a violent person. I do caress it a little."

She blushed, I knew the word 'caress' always affected her and made her think of the times I had cherished her and worshipped her body. I handed her a glass and she sipped it sparingly then discarded it on a table, and asked the waiter for some water instead.

"Flying out tomorrow, I can't risk a hangover," she explained and my heart plummeted.

"Where to this time?" I asked. I had no idea where she had been in the last few months, nobody told me and I hadn't asked. I didn't see the point of knowing where she was because the only important thing was, she wasn't here.

Now she was, for one night only.

"Chicago," she answered shortly.

I knew what I wanted and I hoped she would want the same thing and I kept her to myself for the whole night, changing the name cards on the tables so she and I shared a small table previously set for Rose's grandparents. I'm sure they enjoyed the upgrade to the bridal table.

Emmett nodded and gave me the thumbs up when he saw what I had done so no hard feelings and I went to stand beside his chair when I made the speech, before going back to my Bella.

"No date, Edward? Aren't you supposed to hook up with the second bridesmaid?" she asked, seeing Alice was the main one.

"I hoped you would be standing up for Rose, then I would have definitely been interested in doing that," I answered.

"I wasn't even sure I would be able to make it as a guest, I refused to let Rose depend on my attendance as part of the wedding party. I'm going to be Godmother instead. Oh, Alice doesn't know that yet, you might not want to let that slip."

"She's already the baby's Aunt, she can't be greedy," I answered, relieved beyond words that Bella would be linked to our family in a permanent way. I was to be the Godfather but she made no mention of knowing that. Maybe she would be surprised at the church in five months time.

"So, you have to come back for the naming ceremony anyway," I said, and she smiled and nodded.

"Rose has promised to fit it around my schedule. Make sure I'm in the right country at the time."

"So, how's your jet setting life?" I enquired. "No partner?"

She shrugged. "Maybe I just can't settle for second best."

"Neither can I," I agreed.

"Do you date?" she asked and I looked deeply into her brown eyes and saw the intense interest in my answer.

"Nope, do you?"

She shook her head.

"I want you back. I miss you so much, there must be a way," I said. She put her hands over mine and sighed.

"Edward, the pregnancy test was wrong. I'm carrying the second chance baby."

"We need to go somewhere where we can talk," I stated. If this was going to descend into an argument over custody details, we needed to do it in privacy.

I'd had such high hopes to spend the night loving her and reigniting the connection that stayed as strong in her absence as in her presence. Now we had serious issues to discuss and neither of us would bend. All I had wanted was a night with the woman I considered my wife, regardless of our on/off relationship, and now instead it would all be about the coming baby. I wished in a way she hadn't told me until the morning and let me have my cake and eat it too.

Bella took it for granted she was spending the night with me and hadn't bothered opening up her own house, and she collected her overnight bag before getting in my car.

She walked inside and put the water on to boil for tea, and slipped off her shoes and curled up on my sofa, and cuddled into my side.

I was torn. We were adults, we had pasts, we had futures that would be forever interwoven and we had responsibilities now, and had to forget our pride and make this work.

Even so, all my body wanted was to worship this woman and take her into my bed and she made no effort to stop me as soon as my hands started touching her, stroking her back, pulling her closer.

"What do you want, Bella? Just tell me, I'll be whatever you need me to be. I have to come with you, I can't handle this being apart and only having the occasional nights together. I love you. I finally know what love really is. I care more about us being together than my career. Your absence was more than I could bear."

"I'm not writing any more. My final book is about to be released and I've agreed to spend three months touring then that's it. I'm thinking of training to work as a teacher once the baby is at school herself."

"Is it a girl?" I asked, though she probably had no way of knowing yet, unless she had gone for prenatal testing.

"It feels the same. I think of her as a girl but really, I have no clue. Do you want it to be a girl?"

"I just want it to make it alive and full term and be healthy. I've waited a long time for a child and this one feels right. It's different, I think this one is the baby who makes it."

"Then we owe her a stable home with two fulltime parents."

So, all it would take was the Second Chance baby to keep her here with me. Clearly I wasn't enough reason for her to stay but the baby tipped the scales in my favor.

"How far along are you?" I asked and she hesitated.

"Ten weeks." Oh. The stage she got to last time and then miscarried.

"You are a lot healthier this time around, and I did notice you didn't actually drink any of that wine, so I assume even after the negative test you stayed off alcohol?"

"I really rarely drink you know."

"Only in bars," I joked.

"Only in bars to give myself the balls to pick up handsome copperhaired men with emerald green eyes, actually. You do know I had never done it before, or since?"

"Ah, Bella's little aberration from sticking to the rules and look where it got her."

"I think it's gotten me right where I want to be. Edward, I don't _have_ to go to Chicago tomorrow on second thought. I think I'd prefer to stay with you for the week I intended spending there."

"Great, no problem. I would love that. I can ask Carlisle to give me some days off, I may have to work some shifts but he still owes me time off. I've been doing extra shifts since you left."

"Edward," she growled. "How do you ever hope to have a life outside of that hospital if you work so much?"

"I had no reason not to work. Now I do. I have no personal life without you, get used to it. When you are not here all I have is my work."

"Let's go to bed," she suggested and I stripped off quickly, hanging up my wedding attire and laying across the bed, watching her slowly remove her own clothes.

"Damn it, I didn't pack any pajama's, or a nightdress," she said, rifling through her bag.

I jumped up and took a Tshirt from my drawer and pulled it over her naked body, checking she was still perfect as I lowered it onto her. It dwarfed her of course but also allowed plenty of access so as we lay together side by side, she allowed me to examine her body for signs of change this pregnancy was bringing about.

Her breasts were fuller already and tender, she informed me so I made sure to rub them gently, and avoid nipple stimulation as they were hypersensitive.

Her belly was still flat, no telltale curve and really, she could hide any slight changes from anyone who didn't see her naked, for weeks yet.

"Does anyone know?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I wanted you to be the first, after my doctor of course. It's not ectopic, and the placenta has embedded high in the uterus so no placenta previa."

"That's really good news," I said, cuddling her in close.

"You can probably...I mean, the doctor said it will either stick in there despite earthquakes and hurricanes, or not, there's nothing we can't do."

"But if anything went wrong at this stage and we had made love, we would always wonder, wouldn't we?" I suggested. She nodded and smiled at me.

"I'm so glad you are the father, you understand me like nobody else even tries to."

I stroked her abdomen and sang to our baby and encouraged it stay with us and grow.

Waking up, I watched Bella sleeping still and marvelled at the change in my life, again.

It had to be permanent this time, no more changing anyone's minds, no more leaving.

As soon as her eyes fluttered open, I kissed her Good Morning and handed her a cup of tea and two plain crackers and she smiled gratefully.

"Now, you need to be very sure, because I need to know this time it's forever," I cautioned her.

"I won't change my mind, we need one another and the baby needs us to do this right, and together."

"When do you have to leave on tour?" I asked , fearing it would be too soon.

"In theory, in a week's time. I may be able to delay things. I don't know, in a way I want to get it over and done with early on."

"Or you could consider just letting this one sell without the tour," I suggested.

She frowned. "I guess the baby is the only really important thing and travelling around the world might be too stressful. I just have this niggling feeling this might be a one time only event. I can only ever see us with one child," she admitted. "I can always write another book if this one flops."

"What can I do to encourage you to stay?" I asked and she took my hand and placed it on her heart.

"Just love me and help me through this and know this is no sacrifice, staying. And I do want to stay for you, not just the baby. I do love you, Edward. We are being too reckless with our love and not treating it with the care it deserves."

"I agree. I should have never let you go. I regretted that so much. We should have found a way, back then."

"Well, we have now. Do you still have my ring?" she asked and I slid from the bed and took out the velvet box and slid Nanna's ring onto her finger.

"I actually meant my blue plastic one but this one will do nicely."


	10. Chapter 10

The One Night Stand

Chapter 10 (Short, so nobody who doesn't want to read misses any storyline)

BPOV

WARNING: Backdoor sex, don't like, don't read.

I woke up the next morning kind of surprised at how easily Edward had taken me back. I'd expected him to make me work for his forgiveness or even reject me outright and just fight over custody. I had been prepared to fall on my knees and beg if that's what it took but instead I woke up inside his embrace, his lips on my hair, his arms around my body.

Smelling his distinct aroma was not easy to tolerate, all I could think about was sex and the knowledge he was probably going to be rather firm about waiting until some specific date when things could be safer. I knew there was no magic date, just ten weeks seemed like a riskier time because of what happened before.

I felt his morning wood pushing against my back and rolled over and reached out a hand. The least I could do was help him with that and I licked my lips in anticipation.

He was still fast asleep and I wriggled against him and felt him reach for my hips and thrust against me. I had an idea and reached for the lube, ever present beside his bed, and coated him liberally.

I'd done backdoor sex before, not with him, but one of my former lovers had been partial to it so I concentrated on relaxing and felt him slip inside, slowly. It was natural to resist, this was not what this orifice was there for, but it had never bothered me that some men preferred this to pussy.

Edward's face was intense with concentration even in his sleep, and he seemed to be instinctively careful as he thrust shallowly and didn't try to fully push all the way inside.

He swore quietly under his breath each time he left then went back inside.

"So tight, so fucking tight," he murmured. "So good." I smirked. Yes, some men just enjoy a different destination.

He was starting to get into it, carried away by the sensations of pushing into such a small place and he grunted and bucked and gripped my hips so hard I knew I was going to be bruised.

"Fuck me," he moaned and bucked faster, and I found it so erotic I had to touch myself. There was not a lot in this type of sex for the woman but hearing him so feral was turning me on incredibly and I feared spontaneous combustion if I had to listen and not join in.

I watched his face in the mirrored tiles on the wall and as he came his eyes flew open, just as I joined him and orgasmed around my own fingers.

"Fuck, what...Bella, fuck me," he cried as he jerked and filled me. He immediately withdrew and I turned to face him.

"Bella, I've never...I'm so sorry. Why didn't you stop me?" he demanded, sitting up, reaching for his Tshirt off the bed and carefully cleaning me up again.

"I was dreaming, but I thought...I didn't know where..."

"It's okay. I have had that type of sex before. It's fine."

He was shocked and suddenly I felt very scared that he was going to overreact in a bad way.

"You've let other men do that to you? I did read in your novel.."

Oh, that's right. Jonah who took Mystique in the bathroom had also been a fan of backdoor sex, hadn't he? And Edward had clearly read that book the day he rushed me onto the vanity basin and acted out the sex scene from the novel.

"One other man," I clarified."But he liked it a lot and I got used to it."

"I don't know what to say. I've never done that before and never expected to ever do it."

"Did you hate it?" I asked him.

"No," he admitted and the look of shock on his face at discovering he had enjoyed the naughty bad sex was priceless. "I want to do it again. Awake."

"Okay," I agreed and waited for him to make a move.

"We should take a shower and clean up and maybe I should use a condom. You did lube me up?"

I nodded.

Clearly he had thought about it even if he had never done it before.

The shower was thorough but fast and he was aroused like never before, wanting to get back inside. He pulled on the condom and lubed it himself then insert a lube covered finger inside me and made sure I was well lubricated as well.

"Okay, let's do this," he said and his voice sounded like a very excited child almost.

"Fuck me," he cried as he slid inside, inch by inch, until he was fully enclosed. I was used to the man being in deep. Jacob had liked this type of sex far more than the regular type and I had experienced it nightly for over a year when with him, so it wasn't new at all. Just something I hadn't done in a while.

Edward pulled all the way out each time, clearly he liked the thrill of entering inside the tight opening, against his tip and he moaned and swore incessantly the whole time.

"This is amazing. I never expected...Fuck."

He reached his fingers around and worked on me as he thrust and we both came hard together.

He withdrew and ripped off the condom.

"Bella, that was...sensational. I mean, I fantasized about doing that for years and I always thought it was taboo. I would never have asked you to do that."

I turned and reached up for his kiss and he responded then lay back and put his arm under his head.

"I just can't believe that happened. Fuck. That was amazing."

I had to laugh, he was so shocked almost. Maybe he would see me in a different light now. I hoped he wouldn't resent that he had not been my first anything, anywhere, other than in my heart.

I had never loved anyone like I loved him.

"Did you have to do stuff to get used to that?" he asked, looking genuinely interested.

"Yeah, the necessary stretching and using the plugs was the worse part. The actual penetration was never as bad as they were."

"Whose idea to do that was it? Yours or his?"

"His."

"Do I want to know who he was?"

"Probably not," I answered.

"Fuck. Jacob Black," he guessed immediately. I shrugged.

"I would probably punch him only he prepared you for what was the most surprisingly amazing experience of my entire life."

"It did take me a long time to get used to it," I admitted. "You would be glad to miss the training and waiting and times he had to stop and get out because I couldn't take it. It's an acquired taste."

"But you don't mind doing it now?" he checked and I smiled.

"Edward, you can do that anytime you want."

"Fuck me, how did I get so lucky? I've had Emmett crowing to me for years about the difference and how good it is this way and I never expected to be with a woman who would allow that."

"Are you disgusted with me?" I asked. "God no. I'm so fucking happy right now...shit, this doesn't mean I'm gay, right?"

"Only if you do it with men," I assured him. "Plenty of straight couples do this. It's just another type of sex, after all. It's not perverted or harmful. It's just sex."

"Bella, you are the most amazing woman I will ever meet."

There you go. Teach a dog a new trick and he loves you for it. I had a feeling that sex might become a regular happening now he had tried it and liked it.

"I want to do something special for you. Anything. Just ask. I will do absolutely anything you ask of me."

Oh this was working out rather well.

"Make breakfast," I answered and he grabbed me and kissed me, laughing.

"I'll cook every meal and do the housework, you need to save your energy."

It's so cute when they discover something new.

We were meeting up with his family to talk about the wedding and say Goodbye to Emmett and Rose before they left on their honeymoon and I was watching Edward. I knew he couldn't wait to tell his brother what we had done.

I was making the coffee in the kitchen and saw my man pull his brother and best friend outside and just watching his face as he told them everything was so amusing.

"Fuck me, you did the alternate entrance," Alice said, standing beside me, watching the boys.

"We did. Edward seemed to like it," I answered her.

"Now he'll be nagging for that all the time," she sighed. "Bella Swan, you are changing my brother completely. He used to be so...anal."

We both burst into laughter. Rose walked up and heard just the last remark.

"Isabella Swan, you dirty girl. I remember a certain teenager almost throwing up when we read about that little man treat in a magazine. She swore nobody would ever invade her there, no matter what. I'm guessing this all changed during your Jacob year. That boy was quite wild, I seem to remember."

"He had to get me high the first few months we did that and even so, it took ages before I could come close to enjoying it. But he did break me in for Edward and my Edward liked it very much so it was worth it."

"Show me a man who doesn't like an downtown girl and I'll show you a man whose never been invited to visit there."

"Remember when we were the adventurous ones she sat back and envied us? Now she is showing that brother of yours some fresh pastures," Rose chortled. "Edward Cullen , who would have ever imagined. Hey, how did you convince him to try it? You've only been back one night. Did you roofie him?" she asked suspiciously.

"What makes you think I'd have to do that?" I asked.

"Emmett just always says Edward is a missionary man, who would never try anything new."

"Missionary man? Boy, well that night he went home with me from the bar, he was certainly no missionary man. He did everything except this newly found pleasure."

"Really? That's weird. He was so ...boring with Char. I used to feel sorry for her. He was never even slightly adventurous. It was like he thought he would shock her if he tried anything like that. He never even went down on her, you know," Alice stated.

"Really? That explains a lot. He was like a man with a new toy that night and he was so nervous but once he tried something and got it right, he was willing to repeat it over and over."

"He thought you would never see him again so he had the courage to try all the things he had ever been scared to do with Char. Ha, who'd have though starting a relationship with a one night stand could be a good thing. If he'd met you in a flower shop and asked you out on a date, you'd still be holding hands and wondering if he was ever going to take his pants off, let alone invade yours," Alice said.

The men were talking animatedly and it felt good to see Edward was joining in and had plenty to offer when Emmett was clearly boasting. Emmett may have done everything under the sun with many women but now his brother was starting to feel just as manly and I had done that to him. I had made him one of the boys.

They came inside and Edward immediately walked over and put his arms around my waist from the back and kissed my neck.

"I love you."

"I love you,too. I hope you didn't tell them anything," I whispered flatly and watched the guilt and fear show in his eyes. I laughed.

"Relax, I know you told them and I know they had plenty to tell you back. Rose and Alice have always told me everything."

Edward turned me around and kissed me deeply. "You have changed my entire life. I don't even recognize myself any more. I'm different. I do things other guys do. I try stuff with you I would not have dreamed of doing before. I feel like a man."

"I know you do. I've felt you."

He smirked.

"You are the first man who ever made me feel like a woman. You know what I mean? Nobody else had ever touched me so carefully, so gently, and treated me so nicely, yet also took me in almost every way possible in that one night. You spoiled every other man for me. I never wanted to ever be with anyone else."

"That's what you did to me. You made me feel like I could try anything and not be judged. I loved that night, to be honest. It was like a new world opened up to me. I'd never been inside a girl's mouth before that night. It blew my mind. And you keep on doing that. Making me feel new things."

"Or old things in new places," I giggled cheekily.

We stood there swaying back and forth, embracing and kissing and laughing together and I knew I had a place in his heart forever. Just as he would always be my ideal man.


	11. Chapter 11

EPOV

Coralie Abernathy was a long term patient and she growled and flicked off her television set as I entered her room to examine her. I showed my surprise, normally she managed to watch Oprah as I took her blood pressure and checked her breathing, because nothing would distract her from her favorite show. If a nurse stood between her and the screen, she had been known to throw things at them. With us doctors, we just got told firmly to 'move our skinny asses out of the way' as she bent her neck to keep eyes on the programme.

"Has Ms Winfrey offended you?" I asked with a grin. God knows what poor Oprah had done but I knew this woman held a grudge when people crossed her. Her sister was banned from visiting because she once borrowed a pair of shoes from Coralie's closet when they were teenagers, fifty years ago. Abigail dropped in leaving flowers and chocolates, which her sister did allow the nurses to leave with her, but she refused to speak to Abigail, no matter what.

"Read this!" she cried, slamming a book into my hands.

I turned it over.

Total Eclipse Of The Heart.

By Isabella Swan.

Bella's newest book, the one she was allowing to sell or fail to sell at it's own peril. So far, sales had been as high as for her other books so the book signing tour, or lack of it, had made no difference. She did get a lot of disappointed emails from her readers at her website but once she posted about how she was pregnant again and how sad she had been when she lost Charlotte, they understood and rallied behind her decision, assuring her they would still buy her books and sending her their best wishes that this little one would make it through the pregnancy.

Bella in turn, promised to put up photos of the baby as soon as it arrived, and to regularly update them as she or he grew.

"I actually do plan on reading this novel, funnily enough, but I don't have time at the moment," I answered Ms Abernathy.

"Not the story, you fool. The back cover."

I frowned and read the usual blurb about Bella, then breathed in sharply at the last bit.

_Isabella has accepted Oprah Winfrey's offer to appear weekly on the show and host the Book Club segment. She will be moving to Chicago permanently to fulfil this role._

"Does that creature there look like Isabella Swan to you?" Ms Abernathy growled, flicking the tv back on, pointing to the large purple clad, curly haired woman that was hosting Book Club.

"Definitely not," I agreed and filled in her chart and left the room.

Bella had been offered a regular spot on Oprah? She hadn't mentioned it to me at all and I was sure neither Rose nor Alice knew either because my sister would not have shut up about it.

Bella had been almost off hand about canceling her trip to Chicago and had said nothing in the weeks since.

I couldn't imagine how it would have felt to have been offered such an opportunity but she had decided to stay here, for me, and the baby, instead.

We were holding her back but it had been Bella's choice. Obviously she had come back for the wedding to be there for her friends but also to say Goodbye to me and make arrangements for the baby's joint custody with me but she had changed her mind and stayed.

I had to believe it was because she realized she loved me more than this amazing opportunity.

I spent the rest of my shift in a daze and hurried home afterwards. Bella was stretched out on a blanket in the only patch of sun in the backyard and was reading an old favorite, a classic no doubt.

"Hey, how do you feel?" I asked, sitting down beside her. She looked amazing. She was letting me do the cooking because the smell of meat, in particular, as it cooked, turned her stomach. I wanted her getting plenty of iron so she either stayed upstairs until the cooking was done or went for a walk outside until I called her in.

"Great. I'm working on the theory the baby may get a suntan through my skin and not be as lily white as we are if I sunbathe every day."

"Good luck with that. I think she is fated to be porcelain skinned, somehow. Bella, why didn't you tell me about Chicago?"

She rolled over and sat up, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"What's to tell? I changed my mind."

"But it was an amazing opportunity. You could be rich and famous. You could have become a celebrity."

"Big deal. And I would have had to do it without you, and with our baby being raised by nannies. I don't want that. This baby and you are the only things I care about now."

"I feel like I've cheated you. I should have asked more questions about why you were going to Chicago. All I could think about were my own selfish desires to have you back with me. I never asked you where your career was headed. You were going to move to Chicago, clearly."

"But then I saw you and I knew _this _was also a once in a lifetime opportunity. I was going to move to Chicago and take the offer up, because I feared I may lose this baby and be left with nothing again. Then I realized this time I wouldn't be left empty handed. I would have you. And having somebody love you is far more important than any job. I don't have any regrets. I love you and I know we will make it. I desperately want the baby to make it too, but we have one another now. Properly. You showed me how much you loved me that night and I couldn't walk away."

"But I didn't make love with you that night," I frowned as I recalled the evening in question.

"That's right. I told you that you could and you wanted me, I could see that all through the wedding reception, but you didn't attempt to make love to me because you knew I was scared about it being ten weeks. I guess it hit me like a tsunami. A man who offered to sacrifice his career to be with me, after eight years of studying and work to get where he was. A man who chose to just hold me instead of repeating that first night of passion we spent together. I wouldn't have stopped you. I wanted you inside me as much as you wanted to be there But you put me first. A man who cherished me. That's all any girl ever wants, Edward. Not her face on billboards and viewers hanging on her every word about books. I love books but I love you so much more. Books don't keep you warm at night. Books don't reach for you and caress your body with love and honor. Only you do that."

I lay beside her and kissed her gently.

"Thank you. Thank you for choosing me and for staying. I will always try and make it up to you."

"There's nothing to make up. As long as I have you, I can face anything."

"I want you so much right now," I admitted and Bella lifted her full flowing gypsy skirt and huddled closer, undoing my belt.

I entered her slowly, carefully, mindful of the ever increasing bump that was between our bodies and I hoped I wasn't going to cry because she made me feel so special at that moment.

"Bella, I do cherish you and adore you and I love you so much more than I ever loved anyone else, ever."

Her eyes widened in shock and I kissed her lips.

"I do, there's no denying it. I'm just so glad Char and I had our time together before you entered my life because I greatly fear you would have lured me away from her. Not on purpose, I know you would never have wanted to break up my marriage to her but I know deep in my soul, you and I were always the ones meant to be together and where would that have left Char? Would you even have let me inside your heart if you knew I left her for you?"

"You don't have to say this, I know you love me and you loved her too. There's no competition, and I love that you did love her. I would never want to be with a man who shrugged off the death of his first wife without a backward glance, because if I were that wife, I would want you to remember me."

"Bella, that's the difference. If I lost you, I wouldn't even try to go on. You are my life now. I couldn't live in a world where you didn't exist."

I traced my fingers down her cheeks and wiped away her tears.

She rocked against me and I made sure to take all of my own weight as I made love to her and gazed into her deep brown eyes all the while.

"I am going to hate the last few months, when I can only take you from behind, because I won't be able to watch your face. I love watching your eyes when I'm inside you. I love the connection on all levels."

"So, is that why you haven't asked me again, for backdoor sex? I knew you liked it but you never try and Alice and Rose told me, once a man gets a taste of that, it's where he will always prefer to be."

"It was fun, I admit it felt amazing but it's too removed for me. I want to see your face and I want to do things that involve us both, not something that's just a thrill for the man. I want your body to crave mine and want me to bring you that pleasure at the same time you give it to me. I love you, not just what your body does to mine. We can do that other stuff sometimes, birthday treat, whatever, but I prefer making love. I prefer us like this."

"So, at heart, you are a missionary man," she grinned.

"Bella, I was frozen in time as virtually a teenager. I had hardly experienced much sex before you. I mean, I started at fifteen and clearly was way too young and immature to even be responsible back then. Then I was very cautious with Char because I was afraid of hurting her.

Until I met you, I was never game to try anything new. I loved that you demanded it of me and did things to me without asking. I would have blushed and stuttered and fallen off the bed had you asked before you took me in your mouth, for instance. You showed me what I had missed out on, and you blew my mind that night. I have no doubt we would have ended up together far sooner had the other thing not happened. I truly did not want you to have my baby. I had my problems, of course, but I also wanted you to be mine alone and the whole baby thing prevented that happening."

"But we really only have a few months before we have this baby," she replied.

"But now I know I am willing to wait and my time will come again. Once the baby grows up, I know we will still be here, together, waiting to be just a couple again. I know we will love our child and enjoy every minute it spends in our care, but I also know we will be just as happy when it's just us again."

Bella stroked my face as I moved inside her and we kept eye contact as she fluttered and came around me and triggered my own release. I watched her eyes darken with pleasure and her eyelids half close as she whispered my name. I wanted to fill her with my love and my seed would only ever be for her. I felt it fill her and I continued laying there, inside her, just being us.

We went inside and I carried her upstairs and washed her clean and we lay together in our bed, just touching. I loved every inch of her and I loved knowing she loved me back. Deeply, truly. She gave up her career for me, and I would be whatever she needed me to be from this day forward.

As we dozed with my hand on her abdomen, I felt the first tiny fluttery jerk against her skin and she opened her eyes in awe.

"Did you feel that?" she asked and I grinned and nodded.

Our baby was alive and kicking. I kissed the place where I'd felt the movement and lay my ear against her skin.

"Uh oh, she's talking already! I think she has some of Aunty Alice's genes. Oh no, how will we cope?"

"We should have a scan and see if it is a girl," Bella suggested. We were both so sure, I guess it would be a good idea in case we had to revise our hopes and dreams.

I really just preferred the idea of a daughter. I could protect her and not envy another male in my Bella's arms. I wasn't sure I wanted to ever share her with another male of the species. In any way. She was mine and I wanted to be the most important man in her life, forever.

X~x~X

It turned out to be a family affair. I unwisely asked Carlisle to do the scan so I could be holding my Bella's hand and share the discovery together. Esme insisted on coming in as well, and Emmett and Rose were having their scan after us, so it would have been mean to refuse Alice a front row seat as well.

Carlisle made us wait as long as possible as he checked and rechecked every possible part of the baby, then finally he got a good clear view between the legs and winked at me. I knew straight away and I leaned and whispered in Bella's ear.

"It is a girl. I'm so happy, my Bella. A little girl. Just what we hoped for."

"Well?" demanded Alice. "All I can see is those two white lines. Does that make it.."

"A girl," Carlisle answered.

A cheer went up and everyone wanted to hug my Bella and I accepted the handshakes all round.

"Okay, my turn. You should be able to determine how many boys there are amongst the triplets," Rose said and Emmett paled and almost fell.

"Just joking. Geez, and they say women are the weaker sex."

I cleaned up the gel off Bella and took her out of the room to help redress in a cubicle down the hallway.

"I love you so much. I feel like the luckiest man in the world, and it's all your doing," I told her quietly.

"You gave this little girl to me. I know I'm the lucky one," she smiled.

I rubbed her swollen belly and kissed the baby and Bella moaned as my hand stroked lower and caressed between her folds. The whole experience was so intimate I just wanted to complete the visit with an out pouring of my love for my Bella.

I left her for a brief moment to lock the door, then I lay her on the padded bench and opened her legs, placing my head between her thighs and sucking her inside my mouth. She always came quickly this way and she needed the release by then, so I stroked and sucked and pushed a finger inside to help her along and lapped at her juices when she collapsed against me.

"Edward," her voice was music to my ears.

We walked back, hand in hand and congratulated Emmett on his son.

His child was due first, and hopefully he would absorb the hysteria of being the first grandbaby and everyone would be nice and calm by the time our little daughter arrived.


	12. Chapter 12

The One Night Stand

Chapter 12

"At some point you will have to let somebody else hold her," Bella warned as I scooped our daughter from the perspex basket beside Bella's bed. It was almost visiting hours and _they_ would be invading this room any second. Those people who imagined they also held some claim to this perfect child in my arms.

"Mine," I growled and gazed into the jade green eyes of our daughter.

"How are you, Bella?" Carlisle asked and picked up her chart.

"I feel great, when can we get out of here?"

"It's only been three days since the birth. I thought you would appreciate the chance to get some rest before your new boss takes over the household. Does she have a name yet?"

Edward frowned. The one bone of contention. Bella wanted the baby named after him and he wanted her named after his precious wife.

Carlisle knew they both spent hours trying to combine both their names to come up with something usable. Meaningful had long been given up on.

"You could go with Edward's second name, Anthony, and take the An then add the 'abella" from your first name. Anabella."

"Perfect. Brilliant," Edward sighed and repeated the name to his daughter.

Baby Carl Masen had been named for Carlisle and Masen, as the first grandson. By luck, Rose's father was named Carleton, making everything easy for their name choice.

"I think Anabella Renesmee is only fair," Bella said, determined to even up the playing field and sacrifice her daughter's middle name just to keep peace with the new grandmothers.

Edward was less sure saddling her with that ridiculous handicap of a name was even fair on this perfect little angel.

"Nobody ever uses middle names, she won't care," Bella assured him again.

"Okay, Anabella says she is happy to be named after Grandma Renee and Grandma Esme," Edward informed Bella.

"Look, she's smiling," he crowed delightedly.

"She has a belly full of wind, put her up against your shoulder and pat her back," her mother advised.

"I do know how to look after my own daughter," Edward growled. he had been the one walking the floor with her last night, when she finally realized this was it. She had been evicted from her nice warm first home and thrust out into the world and there was no going back. She had cried for hours but Edward understood her pain, it was never easy being separated from Bella. It must be heartbreaking to live inside her for nine months then get ejected into the cold harsh world instead.

He had told her all about the wedding and how her aunts had looked glamorous and Auntie Rose had been pissed off because she had only given birth to Carl a week earlier. But Bella had eclipsed everyone else, in her beautiful white dress that floated around her body, not trying to hide the bundle of baby she carried, but caressing her skin gently instead.

She had never looked more beautiful and Edward had walked back towards her down the aisle, meeting her half way.

They had made their vows and the only problem had been the kiss. How was he meant to behave with decorum just because they had an audience? Edward had desperately wanted the wedding to precede the birth and Bella was so blissed out on her hormone rush, she had gone along with his wish.

Jasper and Emmett had stood at Edward's side and made eyes at their own wives, and Edward had felt a sense of completion and really being as settled and committed as they were.

Finally they were all mated and things were as they should be.

Edward had flown to Boston to tell Char himself, a week before the wedding, so she would know he had finally moved on. He would always love her with the smaller half of his heart but that heart seemed to grow larger every day and he even suspected he had grown a second heart the moment this small baby girl had taken her first breath.

"Auntie Alice _demands _to be allowed to hold the baby today," his sister announced as she danced into the room. She dropped pink wrapped gifts onto the bed, as she had every visit since delivery and she handed Edward a gift for himself.

"Swap. You take this present and give me the baby," she ordered in a firm but reasonable voice.

"Have you washed your hands?" he demanded.

"I scrubbed up and I swear my hands are cleaner than a surgeons," she replied.

Edward sighed and carefully relinquished his hold and he made sure Alice knew what she was doing, and was supporting Anabella's head correctly. Se didn't have a child of her own yet, how could she even be trusted to know how to hold theirs safely?

"Come on, I've walked the floor a hundred times with Carl. You know that. I'm your future babysitter, you will need me, so man up and buzz off, Edward."

Edward kept his eyes on her and cringed when she walked towards the window. They all swore they could see copper highlights in the baby's brown hair, he didn't think that was even true. they were romanticising.

Anyway, he had always preferred brunettes. He loved that his daughter had the same hair as his wife.

"So much hair. We are going to curl this mop into the most perfect ringlets as soon as she can sit up," Alice said to Rose, who smiled at the baby and nodded.

She was glad Emmett got the son he desired first try but it would be girls from now on. She didn't want to duplicate the ratpack of boys. This generation would be heavily studded with girls if the women got their way.

"Anabella Renesmee Cullen," Edward announced before any of them thought to ask and start nagging as they did every visit. The way they carried on, you would think there was a danger his baby would develop a complex just because she had entered the world without a name waiting for her.

"Anabella," Alice sang gaily, swinging her hips and rocking the little girl in rhythm.

"Be careful Alice, she isn't a doll," Edward growled and rushed to take her back.

"Son, I think if you don't let your mother hold the baby next, she may just rip your arms off," Carlisle warned him and he stood back and watched his daughter be transferred to Esme's arms.

"Thank you, son," she murmured, clearly pleased to have her own name given to this child.

Edward gave up and opened his gift. It was a framed photo from the video of the delivery. he was being handed his newly delivered daughter and Bella was smiling at them both. It was a beautiful moment in time, caught forever.

"Thank you, Alice," he said gruffly, wiping a tear from his eye. That had been the ultimate moment in his life. he would never forget it and this photo would make sure it was the first memory in his head every morning when he awoke.

"You'll notice I co-ordinated the frame to match your bedroom, seeing you will put it right beside your bed," she smirked.

Emmett walked to his mother and held his son up so he could gaze at his new cousin.

"Be nice to her, she is a girl and the best first life lesson is, be nice to girls. Always. Believe me, it pays off in the long run if it just becomes first nature to treat them nice," he said.

He was raising this boy right and he had always found girls were very nice back to him if he was nice to them first.

Rose caught his eye and he stopped grinning.

Of course, Rosie was the only girl he would ever be nice to again. That went without saying.

X~x~X

Edward carried the bags inside then rushed back out to carry his daughter into the house.

"Wait here, I'll be right back for you," he promised Bella. She laughed to herself. he was smitten and she would be taking full advantage of that. He wanted to be a hands on Dad, well he could do the night shift and let her get some sleep. She was already pumping her breasts after every feed so the fridge would have a supply of nightfeeds.

She just wanted to sleep.

She watched him rush back to her and open her door.

"I can walk," she protested as he scooped her up in his arms and kissed her face tenderly.

"I know you can, but why should you? You have me to carry you everywhere from this day forward. I love you, Mrs Cullen."

He sat her on the sofa and Bella watched him buzz around, making her a cup of tea, changing the baby into a more comfortable outfit after he took a dozen photos of her in her pink frilly finery.

She'd probably have flash burn except Edward had invested in a camera that didn't need a flash, to protect his daughters eyes.

Yep, it was going to be this way the whole journey. Him always thinking ahead, finding ways to keep his girls safe and protected. He would probably wipe every visitor down with an antibacterial cloth before they could enter the house.

Bella hoped he would manage to relax and enjoy their daughter eventually. He took her empty cup to the kitchen and washed it, then brought out several pillows from the bedroom to prop her comfortably on the couch to feed their soon to be hungry daughter.

"I think if you watch television while you feed her, you should stick to education shows," he suggested and she bit her lip and nodded.

He'd be back at work in six weeks time and she would watch whatever she chose to once he was gone for the day.

But for now she was happy to keep him happy and she settled down to watch a male lion protecting his cubs, and bringing down a deer to feed them their first taste of blood.

That would be Edward, always there to bring down whatever his family needed.

God bless one night stands.

They may start all about sex but sometimes they ended up all about love.

The End


End file.
